250 Milestone

[Thomas Wilson80]

Thomas, do you belong to a turning club? If so, I highly recommend getting with your members and spending some turning time on various lathes before buying anything. Reason, besides costing lots of money, is that not all lathes are a good fit and that fit will depend on your style of turning and what works best for you.

Thanks for the advice Roger and Steve. I live about 45 min. from the nearest club but with a busy job and 3 little kids I can barely make time to get out in the garage let alone to a meeting. Maybe for such a big (and costly) decision it would be worth making the time. Will have to try to get out and talk to some turners. It would be great to learn something firsthand for once (though youtube and SMC have got me this far).

As always, thanks for the input/advice. This forum has helped me so much.

Tom

[Steve Schlumpf]

Thomas, I live about 8 or so hours north of you (Harvey, MI) and I have a Jet 1642 2hp lathe and a Robust American Beauty if you want to give them a try. I think you would be impressed with either, but for me, I just needed something bigger (Robust) to do larger forms or would have stayed with the Jet. Once I got the Robust - wished I could have upgraded even sooner! Amazing lathe and the best thing I can say about it is that I don't even think about it while turning! Everything is where it is supposed to be, extremely smooth to operate and with a 3 hp highly efficient motor, has all the power I need to turn whatever I can envision!

[John Keeton]

Thomas, the G0766 does have good power, swing and other good features. At its price point, it is a lot of bang for the buck. Grizzly also has good customer service. My bandsaw, jointer, planer, and tablesaw are all Grizzly, but not my lathe. In my opinion, the lathe is the one machine in most hobby shops that involves extended use for long periods of time. Ergonomics are vitally important. Spindle height is critical for comfort. The footprint of the lathe is a big factor in stability. Other features that relate to how comfortable one is while spending hours standing at the lathe need to be considered. The lathe should be one of the most highly engineered machines in the shop. I think it is wise to turn on as many lathes in one’s budget as possible before making such a major purchase.

[Thomas Wilson80]

Thanks - after hearing it from so many people, it makes sense to try out the different lathes before purchasing. I will definitely find time to go to one of the clubs.

Steve - our scout troop went to Grand Island last summer, I think that's right up near your neck of the woods. Beautiful!

Thanks,
Tom

[Steve Schlumpf]

Grand Island is about 45 minutes away and chances are you had to drive right by my house to get there! If you get back up this way, you'll have to stop in for a shop tour and some lathe time.

[Keith Outten]

Something to think about Ladies and Gentlemen.

We are getting close to converting the SawMill Creek software from vBulletin to Xenforo. Of particular interest in this thread is the fact that Xenforo does not have a Groups option so we will have to decide how we are going to handle our existing Groups, at least the ones that are active. It may be necessary to combine the GGMG with our Turning forum but we haven't made any decisions yet.

[Roger Chandler]

Something to think about Ladies and Gentlemen.

We are getting close to converting the SawMill Creek software from vBulletin to Xenforo. Of particular interest in this thread is the fact that Xenforo does not have a Groups option so we will have to decide how we are going to handle our existing Groups, at least the ones that are active. It may be necessary to combine the GGMG with our Turning forum but we haven't made any decisions yet.

Thanks for the heads up Keith. Whatever you need to do, just let us know how it will operate in the future. I hope we can keep some of the features like pics, etc for the GGMG.

[Len Mullin]

Thanks Roger. I really like the idea of the G0766 but am worried I won't be able to deal with possible issues due to my lack of experience/knowledge. As I stated, it seems like most everyone that owns the G0766 loves it, which goes a long way. Maybe it is a great lathe, but maybe just not for someone of limited experience like myself. I'll keep watching for more info as I continue to save for a bigger lathe.

Tom

Tomas, There is no lathe out there that you can buy, that anyone can guarantee you that it won't have issues. They are machines, all machines wear out and break done eventually. If the G0776 fits your needs and is within your price range, then that is the one you should purchase. In my original posting, I mentioned something about people hiding them because of possible issues. As far as I know, there's no issues with these lathes. I just used possible issues as an example, I didn't state any issues. It would make no difference what so ever, if you're mechanically gifted or not. Every brand of lathe out there has the possibility of having issues, even ones that are supposedly issue free. You cannot buy a lathe, that you will not eventually have an issue with. So buy a Griz G0776, there's a great group of guys here, that could talk you through any issue or repair you might have. Good luck with whichever lathe you decide to purchase, I hope you never have any issues with it. Merry Christmas, to you and yours, I hope you enjoy the holiday season.
Len
Len

[Thomas Wilson80]

Tomas, There is no lathe out there that you can buy, that anyone can guarantee you that it won't have issues. They are machines, all machines wear out and break done eventually. If the G0776 fits your needs and is within your price range, then that is the one you should purchase. In my original posting, I mentioned something about people hiding them because of possible issues. As far as I know, there's no issues with these lathes. I just used possible issues as an example, I didn't state any issues. It would make no difference what so ever, if you're mechanically gifted or not. Every brand of lathe out there has the possibility of having issues, even ones that are supposedly issue free. You cannot buy a lathe, that you will not eventually have an issue with. So buy a Griz G0776, there's a great group of guys here, that could talk you through any issue or repair you might have. Good luck with whichever lathe you decide to purchase, I hope you never have any issues with it. Merry Christmas, to you and yours, I hope you enjoy the holiday season.
Len
Len

Thanks Len. Merry Christmas to you and yours as well!

[Keith Outten]

Roger,

We don't plan on losing anything during the conversion. We just might have to move some areas around to keep them from being overlooked by the conversion software. We are very protective of our archives here, they are very valuable.