... or Charter Oak automation new industrial hobbies clone...
)
Just a small quibble with that statement. It is not a "industrial hobbies clone".
Industrial Hobbies sold their business, and the new owner renamed it "Charter Oak". It is the same machine that was sold under the Industrial Hobbies label.
Now if you wanted to call it a "Rong Fu 45" clone, that would be accurate, although it has been heavily modified over about a decade with beefed up table and head swivel.
Machine Tool Warehouse in Ontario used to sell one of these, had the gall to call it "Industrial Hobbies Clone" on their website!
Why is Charter Oak/IH the only RF45 machine you are looking at?
Grizzly sells their G0755 for $2250, which is a good deal, as it has both power headstock elevation (which is important on a mill/drill), and x-axis power feed (which is very nice to have). Grizzly does sell a couple cheaper mill/drills, but I think this is the best choice of the bunch. This is the same machine that Precision Matthews sells as the PM-932M for $2200, although it also includes a quill DRO (also very nice to have). I don't think you can go wrong with either the Grizzly or the PM variant.
Another good alternative is Enco. They have had their RF45 machine on sale for $2200 (for about 3 months now), and 20% off coupon sales come along about once a month. Occasionally, their RF45 clone also shows up in their sale flier as "free shipping", and than you slap a 20% off on top of that, and you got a good deal. No power feed or headstock elevation, however.
My vote (since we are on the Precision Matthews forum) would be the PM-932M over the IH. Why? Matt has been in business for a decade, with tons of satisfied customers. Charter Oak is just starting out... hard to tell where they will go, but they are the 4th owner in the past 6 years. Grizzly of course has been selling machine tools since 1983.