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Do any of you have a grizzly or harbor freight lathe? I was looking at the grizzly with the swivel head and I thought "man that price is too good to be true..." You never know until you ask though....😎
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Grizzly Lathes
- Thread starter Devin Howard
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Devin, I know nothing about Grizzly lathes. But, our local community college just bought new woodshop equipment-- all of it Grizzly--except the lathe, which was Jet.
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They tend to be too fast for their swing and have odd-sized spindles, with almost every model having some other sort of a "why did they do that?" item.
Back when, the castings in the Grizzly tools at school - beans for bucks - had a tendency to fracture in use. Fortunately we had stored the ancient Delta stuff, so it came back out while requests for repair parts were honored by Grizzly. They stood behind 'em, but it seemed they broke too often.
Back when, the castings in the Grizzly tools at school - beans for bucks - had a tendency to fracture in use. Fortunately we had stored the ancient Delta stuff, so it came back out while requests for repair parts were honored by Grizzly. They stood behind 'em, but it seemed they broke too often.
I originally owned a Grizzly 0584 with the swivel head. It looked like a Jet knock-off and had cast iron legs. For the price, it wasn't TOO bad, but if a bowl blank was slightly off-center, the lathe would shake a lot. I had put in a shelf with about 240 lbs of sand, but there was still some heavy vibration.
The low speed was around 600 rpm and the upper end was about 2800. I think I paid less than $400 with shipping.
I own several other Grizzly tools (jointer, dust collection, band saw) and I've always been satisfied. The lathe is fine for learning, but the spindle is an off-sizes 1" x 12 tpi. Accessories can be difficult to find and then there's a limited selection.
I wound up saving for about a year and a half and I bought for a PM 3520b. I sold the Grizzly to a gentleman to use to turn leg spindles for tables and stools. Now we're both very happy.
Don't get me wrong. I think Grizzly delivers value on the price point. I plan to buy other Grizzly tools in the future. I just found that the lathe didn't suit my needs.
Good luck.
John
The low speed was around 600 rpm and the upper end was about 2800. I think I paid less than $400 with shipping.
I own several other Grizzly tools (jointer, dust collection, band saw) and I've always been satisfied. The lathe is fine for learning, but the spindle is an off-sizes 1" x 12 tpi. Accessories can be difficult to find and then there's a limited selection.
I wound up saving for about a year and a half and I bought for a PM 3520b. I sold the Grizzly to a gentleman to use to turn leg spindles for tables and stools. Now we're both very happy.
Don't get me wrong. I think Grizzly delivers value on the price point. I plan to buy other Grizzly tools in the future. I just found that the lathe didn't suit my needs.
Good luck.
John
I do not know about the Grizzly stuff but I own this HF lathe.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=34706
While it is not great by any means it does what I want it to do for now.
I showed my wife a PM3520 at Woodcraft the other day and told her that's what I want. She looked at it and the Jet next to it and said "mustard colored one is what you want right?" Of course I said yes.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=34706
While it is not great by any means it does what I want it to do for now.
I showed my wife a PM3520 at Woodcraft the other day and told her that's what I want. She looked at it and the Jet next to it and said "mustard colored one is what you want right?" Of course I said yes.
I have the G0462 Lathe
And haven't had too many problems with it, and none that I can't cope with.
By problems I mean the following:
- The 600 RPM threshold is a little fast for roughing large bowl blanks (12"+). I keep my headstock locked down and running parallel to the bed of the lathe, I don't turn outboard.
- Either the bearing on the stock live center is broke or the point in the live center is out of alignment (there is a set screw holding it in place) thus if I were to use it to turn long spindles, then I would get nasty vibration and chatter. I was looking to replace it with an aftermarket live center anyway but decided there were a few more important things I wanted before I bought a new live center.
- The nut on the underside of the banjo comes loose after a while, thus when you go to tighten down the banjo, you wont be able to until you reach under and turn the nut about 1/4-1/2 a turn. The same holds true for the tailstock, but less frequent. On average, I have to tighten the banjo nut with my fingers once every 10 hours or so of turning.
- The levers to tighten down the tool rest and the articulated arm between the toolrest and the banjo are "spring screw levers" which in my case strip out easy. Instead of replacing them with something more beefy, I put some JB weld in where the spring is and made it solid. (Annoying Yes, but it fixed my problem for about 5 cents)
- Not that I paid much attention to the digital RPM thing, but it no longer works.
The Good:
- The spindle size on my lathe is 1"x8 tpi - very common with the chucks and face plates that I have seen.
- The motor doesn't bog down, at all, ever. I don't know if it truly is 2HP, but it works for everything that I have turned with it.
- The difference in price after shipping between it and anything else that was compareable to it (JET, DELTA, etc.) was about $350 in my neck of the woods. I used some of that savings to buy a second chuck and a couple of tools (2 Bowl gouges and a bowl scraper) I still came out cheaper than the JET lathe was before shipping.
The Also's:
- I added a couple 2x4's to the base so I could put sand bags on them. I have about 120lbs of sand on it and will most likely add more or bolt the lathe to the floor.
- I have added about 2 dozen Hard Drive magnets to the lathe to hold my most used tools and the tools I'm using for any given project (Typically, the two rod wrenches for the Grizzly Chuck, the two wrenches that came with the lathe for tighening the face plate down, my roughing gouge, my big skew, my large spindle gouge, and my two detail gouges) I've also tied a pencil to one of the HD magnets as I can never seem to find one when I need it.
- If I had to redesign it, I would change the design or placement of the speed control lever - It gets in my way sometimes when I'm doing detail work right close to the head stock.
Am I happy with the lathe - yes - it was my second lathe overall, and my first full size lathe. I do recognize its short comings and have spent the last 2 years turning it into the ground. Aside from what I have mentioned above, it has held up fine for what I do. I've put probably 300h of use into the lathe since I purchased it.
And haven't had too many problems with it, and none that I can't cope with.
By problems I mean the following:
- The 600 RPM threshold is a little fast for roughing large bowl blanks (12"+). I keep my headstock locked down and running parallel to the bed of the lathe, I don't turn outboard.
- Either the bearing on the stock live center is broke or the point in the live center is out of alignment (there is a set screw holding it in place) thus if I were to use it to turn long spindles, then I would get nasty vibration and chatter. I was looking to replace it with an aftermarket live center anyway but decided there were a few more important things I wanted before I bought a new live center.
- The nut on the underside of the banjo comes loose after a while, thus when you go to tighten down the banjo, you wont be able to until you reach under and turn the nut about 1/4-1/2 a turn. The same holds true for the tailstock, but less frequent. On average, I have to tighten the banjo nut with my fingers once every 10 hours or so of turning.
- The levers to tighten down the tool rest and the articulated arm between the toolrest and the banjo are "spring screw levers" which in my case strip out easy. Instead of replacing them with something more beefy, I put some JB weld in where the spring is and made it solid. (Annoying Yes, but it fixed my problem for about 5 cents)
- Not that I paid much attention to the digital RPM thing, but it no longer works.
The Good:
- The spindle size on my lathe is 1"x8 tpi - very common with the chucks and face plates that I have seen.
- The motor doesn't bog down, at all, ever. I don't know if it truly is 2HP, but it works for everything that I have turned with it.
- The difference in price after shipping between it and anything else that was compareable to it (JET, DELTA, etc.) was about $350 in my neck of the woods. I used some of that savings to buy a second chuck and a couple of tools (2 Bowl gouges and a bowl scraper) I still came out cheaper than the JET lathe was before shipping.
The Also's:
- I added a couple 2x4's to the base so I could put sand bags on them. I have about 120lbs of sand on it and will most likely add more or bolt the lathe to the floor.
- I have added about 2 dozen Hard Drive magnets to the lathe to hold my most used tools and the tools I'm using for any given project (Typically, the two rod wrenches for the Grizzly Chuck, the two wrenches that came with the lathe for tighening the face plate down, my roughing gouge, my big skew, my large spindle gouge, and my two detail gouges) I've also tied a pencil to one of the HD magnets as I can never seem to find one when I need it.
- If I had to redesign it, I would change the design or placement of the speed control lever - It gets in my way sometimes when I'm doing detail work right close to the head stock.
Am I happy with the lathe - yes - it was my second lathe overall, and my first full size lathe. I do recognize its short comings and have spent the last 2 years turning it into the ground. Aside from what I have mentioned above, it has held up fine for what I do. I've put probably 300h of use into the lathe since I purchased it.
devon,
I have the same lathe as jimbob and have to say he has discribed the lathe perfectly.
I have had the lathe a little over a year bought it because I couldn't afford the pm3520 that I wanted at the time.
have not been sorry I bought the lathe and have produced alot of turnings on it.
it was my second lathe and I will keep it as a backup for teaching purposes.
(just ordered a PM3520).
Hope this helps.
IAN
I have the same lathe as jimbob and have to say he has discribed the lathe perfectly.
I have had the lathe a little over a year bought it because I couldn't afford the pm3520 that I wanted at the time.
have not been sorry I bought the lathe and have produced alot of turnings on it.
it was my second lathe and I will keep it as a backup for teaching purposes.
(just ordered a PM3520).
Hope this helps.
IAN