Grizzly Lathe?!
Don & Charlotte
I am thinking of buying the Grizzly G1495 Heavy Duty Lathe for
approximately $695.00.
Can anyone tell me why I shouldn't buy this Lathe or suggest
one that might be better?.
Any input from the woodturners of the world will be greatly
appreciated.
Dennis J. Gooding
I have owned a Grizzly G1495 lathe for about two years, and have both good
and not-so-good comments about it. Overall, I am satisfied with it after
spending several manhours and a small amount of money fixing minor design
and assembly flaws. It is a heavy, solid piece of machinery that is a strong
cut above the popular Delta and Jet lathes. A strong plus is the inflatable
drum/flap sander and the disk sander and table that mount on the outboard end
of the lathe. The downside is (in my experience) that you may not be happy
with it as it comes out of the box. Some specifics:
The motor came badly mis-aligned with the headstock pulley (more than could
be adjusted for following the assembly instructions). This required moving
motor mount brackets.
The outboard tool rest was missing a part. Grizzly promptly sent the part
upon request, but it did not really fit right. I soon realized that the
whole outboard tool rest system was too flimsy to be used for serious turning
so I did not bother to pursue the issue further. (A stand-alone tool rest
probably is the right answer. However, I have not had much interest so far
in turnings that would require outboard mounting.)
The live center came apart a couple of times when I tried to back off the
tail stock after deeply imbedding the center into a piece of stock.
Apparently the two parts are a pressed fit whose bond broke under the stress
of retraction. Finally, I put a dab of epoxy cement on one piece and pressed
them together. No further problem for over a year now.
The disk sander table is attached with an allen head screw, which makes it a
major pain to mount and dismount. HOWEVER, the screw is the same size as the
ratchet locks used in the tailstock, and the latter can be ordered cheaply
from Grizzly. If you replace the allen head screw with a ratchet lock,
remove and turn upside down the mounting bracket into which the allen head
screw fits. Otherwise, when you use the drum/flap sander, the flap sander
will quickly grind away your ratchet lock.
The upper adjustable pully of the variable speed unit failed after about a
year. It took about 6 months to get a replacement from Grizzly . In the
meantime, I was able to operate (with lots of noise and belt wear) by
epoxying the the assembly together. Realize that the failure in my lathe may
not have been typical of other units.
Good luck in whatever choice you make. Dennis
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