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In my opinion you can probably answer your own question better than anyone else here could. You know what your machining skill level is, you know how much money and time you have. You only need to answer a few question of yourself to know the best route to go.
1. Do you have space restrictions that will inhibit having a metal lathe?
2. Do you have a way to get a metal lathe into your shop where you'd put it?
3. Do you have any experience with a metal lathe?
4. Do you live in an industry area of the US where used machinery is readily available?
5. Do you have a mill, or even a mill drill that you can use to set up a metal lathe for cues?
To me, theres no question of what to buy. Metal lathe, hands down. Depending on what you intend to do with the machine you can rather easily add a taper bar set up. That's where a mill comes into play, to make the parts you'll need to fab it. You can add a rear chuck to almost any metal lathe with minimal effort. You can also add indexing to a metal lathe without a lot of effort too. All of these things are going to require that you possess some machining skills, or at least have a friend or relative close that does and will offer you a hand.
If space is a concern, then the choice is also obvious. However, a taig based lathe doesn't save that much space over a metal lathe if you're thinking about the footprint of the table it sits on. BUT, if you have to be able move whatever you get then again, no question a Hightower is much more easily moved. When you set up a metal lathe, you'll have to level it so its resting spot will need to be semi-permanent so you don't have to keeo leveling and setting it up.
If you in an industrialized area near a larger city chances are you can find a good deal on a used metal lathe. I am close'ish to Milwaukee Chicago so I could find a used metal lathe to buy literally everyday of the week. If you live in Alabama it may take 5 months to find one locally, no disrespect to Alabama. They just dont have a lot of industry. Personally, i wouldn't buy one of the new "hobby" type metal lathes, like the grizzly you asked about, but thats just me. Dont buy a Chinese lathe unless you want a headache when you need parts, and you WILL need parts. Taiwanese machines are better every way you cut it. Grizzly has sold some quality Taiwanese lathes throughout the years so has Jet, and there's a good chance they may have been built in the same factory.
If you decide that your best bet is to go with a metal lathe here are some great examples of lathes to look for used. Jet bdb1340a....Jet ghb1340... Jet, grizzly, msc/vectrax, enco all had lathes made by a company in Taiwan called Jesco machine, they also built lathes under their own brand "Jessy".. The Jesco line of machines is far and away the best bang for the buck for smaller foreign made metal lathes in my opinion. The Jet they built was a 1240 PD. All of the companies had different model numbers but they were all eother 12 or 13x40 machines. Nice machines that they still support them so you can get parts for them no problem.
Sheldon 11-13x40 They made a few different models over the years they were built. Clausing 5900 series, 5913, 5914 etc
Clausing is far and away the most popular cue lathe of all time. If you look in the mass production shops ie; Meucci, Viking, McDermott, Peachauer you'll probably find more Clausing 5900's than anything else. I've been in the Viking facility and its silly how many.Clausings they have. Clausing (the company) calls Viking if they need to source a part that's obsolete because of the shear number of machines they have.
Other things to consider... Parts for Jet, Grizzly etc will become obsolete much faster than the old American iron except for the Jesco built machines. Parts for the Taiwanese machines are also much less expensive, if you're able to find them. All of the consumer/hobby based lathe lines by Jet, Grizzly, Enco etc are not not built by the company themselves. They outsource all production to various machine tool builders in Asis depending on the line and price point.
Do your due diligence... Don't hesitate to ask questions, the only dumb question is the question that doesn't get asked! Unless you've already asked the same question before! Haha
That's my $1.47 answer to your question!
Jon
I can put it under my arm and carry it (Gingery lathe) .... and can do the same with the 109.