Grizzly Lathe Opinons

[dlavery]

Caroline -

Like (way too) many things in life, a reasonable answer to your question must be based on how you answer this: how much are you willing to spend?

Here are a few things to think about before you buy your lathe.

- Many of the lathes sold by Grizzly, Harbour Freight, Enco, MSC, Smithy, and others as "their" brands really all come from the same sources, and they just stick their labels on the machines. Most of the lower-end lathes and mills come from either Taiwan or China. Find out where the machine was made - there is a BIG difference in quality. Many of the Taiwan imports come from Rong Fu, and are good, solid machines (high quality castings, good precision on the ground surfaces, solid pulley/gear covers, etc.). Many of the Chinese import machines tend to be copies of the Rong Fu designs, but with lower quality (blowouts in the castings that have been filled with Bondo, flat grinding on the lathe ways with no oil-retention scraping, cheap sheet metal covers, etc.).

- Buying your lathe is only the beginning of the investment. Unless you know how (and have the time) to make all your own tooling, plan on spending AT LEAST as much as you spend on the lathe for the additional tooling you will need. Things like backplates, 4-jaw chucks, cutting tools, tailstock chucks, free centers, collet sets, tool post fixtures, center indicators, tailstock die holders, cutoff tools, toolpost grinders, knurling tools, etc. all add up fast.

- Make sure you know (or can find someone who knows) how to set up the machine. It is not as simple as opening up the crate and tossing it on the stand. The lathe has to be mounted on a VERY solid support (think about really big slabs of concrete), and preferably bolted to the floor. To get good performance and precision, it must be very accurately leveled in all dimensions, and the lathe bed checked carefully for twist and spindle alignment. This is a straightforward process if you know what you are doing, but probably not something you want to try if you have never seen it done before.

- If you have someone on your team that knows what to look for (any retired - or active - machinists on your team?), consider buying a used lathe. If you know what to look for and can avoid getting scammed, you can get some great deals on used machines. I picked up the 12x27" lathe that I have in my shop as a used machine for 20% of the original purchase price, and all the basic-to-moderate tooling came with it. I knew the person that owned it, and knew the entire history of the machine, so it was a good deal. eBay has some nice deals, but be sure it is a machine that you can inspect before final purchase.

- If you can, get a lathe with a quick-change gear box. Most of the larger models have them. You will save yourself lots of time and frustration associated with dealing with change gears if you get this option (and save a lot of re-training time as student operators change from year-to-year; it is a lot faster to teach someone how to use the gearbox than it is to teach them how to change the gear sets).

- Same thing for the toolpost - get a quick-change version if you can, and one that allows easy adjustment of the tool height. It will make life much easier.

- As a general rule, bigger is better. Get the largest lathe you can afford and fit in your shop. The larger machines will have larger chucks and spindles, hence a larger rotating mass during cutting operations. The larger rotating mass acts as a big flywheel, making for smoother cuts. The larger machines also provide more rigid support for the toolpost and tooling, reducing chatter.

- I know I will get some disagreements here, but I recommend you stay away from combination machines (lathe/mills, lathe/mill/drills, etc.). In my experience (and that of a lot of people I have talked with), these machines are designed to do too many things and to cost too little for the careful design they really need. As a result, they don't do anything really well. I have never been happy with the accuracy or precision of any of the combination machines I have used.

There are lots of on-line resources and discussion groups you can use to find out more information and get a lot of help (both before and after you buy). Here are a few resources to check:

7x10minilathe - Yahoo Groups board for owners of the Chinese 7x10 minilathes marketed by Harbor Freight, Grizzly, etc.

9x20Lathe - Yahoo Groups board for owners of the imported 9 x 20 Lathes sold by Jet, Enco, Harbor Freight, and others.

Bench Mill/Drills - Yahoo Groups board for owners of metalworking mill/drills made by Rong Fu and the knock-off clones (but includes a lot of discussion on lathes as well)

Machinists's Workshop - check the "general" board for info on lathes and other tools

Metalworking Web Sites - good index of metalworking tools and suppliers, with lots of links to additional information and resources

-dave