I am considering upgrading my General 260 to a Grizzly, Powermatic, Baileigh, or Oliver in the $3,000 to $4,000 range. Any thoughts?
Bob,I am considering upgrading my General 260 to a Grizzly, Powermatic, Baileigh, or Oliver in the $3,000 to $4,000 range. Any thoughts?
The Powermatic is at the top of your price range and the best of the bunch by far in my opinion. Grizzly is OK, but for their lathes that I have looked at they incorrectly state the horsepower of the motor. They state the input electrical power (using the term horsepower rather than the correct terminology which would be watts) and seem to imply that it is the motor output mechanical horsepower. If you multiply their stated horsepower by ²∕[SUB]3[/SUB] then that should be close to the actual mechanical horsepower output o the motor.
I have the Robust American Beauty which is about double your stated budget, but if you can somehow manage the larger amount, that opens up several cream of the crop possibilities that includes Robust, Oneway, and Vicmarc lathes, all of which are exceptional machines. However, the Powermatic is an excellent lathe. It sells for about $4,000 which may seem a bit painful, but you won't regret getting it. As they say, buying quality only hurts once.
... Although the Jet [1642] is a good lathe, the PM is, in my opinion, significantly better...
Well I'm a fan of the Powermatic 3520. Also the Jet 1642. Best lathes for the money. Now there are better lathes out there but usually a lot more money, in some cases twice as much. Grizzly lathes have improved a lot and so has Laguna. Not quite the quality of the Powermatic but less money. I've demoed on a lot of lathes and at a lot of clubs and rarely find anyone unhappy with either Jet or Powermatic.