Small Jet or Big Grizzly Lathe?

[Lee Sorrell]

Hi all, I am new to turning and am trying to get my shop set up. Currently purchasing trying to figure out what lathe to purchase. I currently have a large amount of Home Depot giftcards(~$800) and would like to buy my lathe from there. At first I had my heart set on a Jet 1221 VS for $899 but i realized I could also get a Grizzly G0462 for $1168. Is it worth staying with a "nicer" small lathe or going for a bigger slightly lower quality manufacturer(impression from forum reading). Thoughts? I am mostly going to be doing some bowl work with some spindle work to pretty up my flat woodworking.

[Reed Gray]

Well, I was already selling stuff at a local Saturday Market when I got my first lathe, a 4 speed Atlas which would only turn 12 inch diameter. After a year or so, and people repeatedly asking for bigger bowls, I bought a PM3520A. It paid for itself at least 3 times the first year I had it, which means it paid for all the 'accessories' that I needed to become a serious bowl turner. You can turn bowls on the Jet, but it is a bit underpowered for a bowl lathe. If you plan on selling, then you want bigger with more horse power, 2 hp. and preferably 220 volt with a phase converter. Grizzly isn't the finest lathe out there, but many seem to like them. You can turn small things on a big lathe. Turning big things on a small lathe is difficult. That Jet is a good little lathe.

I do have a bunch of videos up on You Tube, mostly dedicated to bowl turning.

robo hippy

[Lee Sorrell]

I will be trying to sell, but it will mostly be in support of our farm at farmers market. We have sheep and sell wool etc. So making knitting bowls and having nice bowls for produce presentation (for sale though of course). Also making drop spindles for intro to spinning sets.

[tom lucas]

I own Jet and Grizzly tools. My experience is that newer Jet tools are about the same quality as newer Grizzly tools, no better no worse. However, Grizzly sells so many different models that some are better than others, and some are likely dogs too. So, it might depend on the model being considered. I'd reach out to owners of the G0462 before making a decision. I have the G0766, and am happy with it so far (3+years).

[Tom Levy]

That grizzly is a reeves drive, not a variable speed. I would highly recommend against that one. I have the Jet 1221 and have since got a bigger lathe. The midi jet is a quality machine that does many things really well and is a great complimentary machine to keep if you end up buying a bigger lathe later. Plus it's cheaper than the grizz to try out and get an idea if turning is something you want to keep doing. Less money for a better machine.

Also don't forget the lathe cost is significant, but the other things you'll need for turning will likely end up costing just as much. You'll also need a selection of turning tools, a sharpening system, a chuck, a drill chuck, sanding supplies and finishing supplies.

Not to mention the time to spend practicing and/or taking courses ($) plus a source of wood for turning. A lathe is not a miter saw and there is real skill, physical movement/coordination and artistry in learning how to make cuts that result in a pleasing shape. I still have much work to do in that department.

[Lee Sorrell]

Ah i didn't know it was a reeves drive, that is significant. I'm in the process of getting all the other equipment I need. Luckily, i bought some auction boxes this year with a decent amount of lathe tooling in it. I have a G3 chuck kit on its way from rockler that was on sale. Tools have got me completely wrapped around the axle. As of now, I'm thinking of one hunter carbide, one thompson 1/2 gouge, and maybe a cheap PSI set. Plus sharpening kit...

[Dave Mount]

A Grizzly 0462 was my second lathe after starting with an older iteration of what is now Delta's midi lathe. The Delta was seriously underpowered for turning bowls over 6-8". It had a step pully for speed control, and the lowest speed was too fast to handle a bowl blank that was anything but perfectly balanced. I chose the Grizzly G0462 because it had much larger capacity and it was cheap (I think it was $500 at the time). At the time I was an island unto myself in terms of turning, I didn't have a "mentor" and didn't do much research beyond throw and bed length. At the time I was simply too cheap to spring for a lathe with true variable speed control. I turned a lot of bowls on that G0462. It is a lot of capacity for the money (or was when it was $500) but it has the low price tag because it is built to meet a low price point. By paying only a small amount for the lathe, you are also buying into a lot of less than perfect characteristics. After a few years on that lathe I bought a PM3520B, which was money very well spent. However, I can't really say buying the G0462 was really a mistake. I did not realize how deep into the turning vortex I was going to fall, I was just anxious to try some larger work. There was absolutely no way someone could have convinced me to spend $3K (at the time) on a PM, even though that's where I ended up. You can expect to recover 2/3 of the purchase price of a G0462 by selling it when/if you decide to upgrade (that's probably true for almost any lathe), so you're not paying a huge price for the time you would own a G0462 (or any other lathe) even if you decide later to upgrade.

I would not say I am sorry I bought the G0462, but there are things you should know about it. Everything I say is applicable to the model I bought probably 12-14 years ago, I don't really recall the exact timing. Some of these may have changed since then.

I'm going to list a bunch of negatives about the G0462. While they are true as I see it, don't get lost in them; I did turn a ton of bowls up to 15.75" with it. But by paying so little for a larger lathe, you are signing up to deal with a bunch of "features." In no particular order:

1) This lathe uses a Reeves drive (variable pitch pulley) for speed control. The lowest speed possible is about 500 rpm. If you put an unbalanced blank of much diameter on this lathe it will vibrate badly to the extent you can't really turn with it without retrimming the blank to better balance it. If you're turning much over 10" diameter green blanks, chainsaw trimming of blanks is not sufficient (at least not without doing multiple iterations of trimming) to balance blanks to turn at this speed. You'll probably want to bandsaw your blanks so you can round them more accurately. This doesn't totally fix the problem because you can have a round blank that is still unbalanced. But it's a really good start. Of all the improvements (and there are many) that came with upgrading to the 3520B, the single biggest one is having a true variable speed drive that will go slow (low end about 50 rpm).

2) The Reeves drive pulleys on my lathe were not aligned well, and the v belt ran significantly sideways between the pulleys. The lathe was not designed to allow this to be adjusted. As a result, this thing just ate v belts. As the V belt wears, it sinks farther into the pulleys as it loses width, and the lowest speed achievable rises. Initially I could get 550 rpm with a fresh belt, and I'd change them when the lowest speed rose to around 800 rpm. The good news is they are easy to change and you can find them for less than $5 each. I bought them several at a time so I could change one if I needed to slow the lathe down for a project. Later when I changed the headstock bearings in the lathe, I fussed around a little with the positioning/adjustment of the Reeves pulleys and got the minimum speed down to about 500 rpm. But there was not enough adjustment room to align the pulleys. You'd have to remove the motor bracket and machine in slots to allow adjustment, though there isn't a lot of extra metal in the casting and you might weaken the motor bracket.

3) The Reeves drive creates a "singing" noise when the lathe is running. This did not strike me as much until I changed lathes. The guy that bought my G0462 kept it in my shop for a while while I taught him to turn. That really made me realize how noisy it is. But you can wear muffs or turn the stereo up, it's not a fatal problem.

4) The factory banjo is really poor. It comes with a two-piece articulating banjo. The linkage has far too much flex to be workable. I used it once and got rid of the articulating section and just used the main banjo base. The banjo is small and sometimes requires some gymnastics to get it in the right position. After my friend bought the 0462, I did some research and found that the banjo from a slightly higher quality Griz lathe (I could find the model if you want) could be made to fit the 0462 by just buying the parts and then using the clamp block from the 0462. This was a *huge* upgrade, I highly recommend it to any 0462 owner. I think it was less than $100 for the parts. Well worth it.

5) The tailstock is not well designed, and the quill travel is limited. The quill locking mechanism is a thumbscrew, not an eccentric clamping mechanism. It is always coming loose.

6) Some of the levers/knobs were plastic handled levers that fit over a hex head. Two of these broke within the first year. I got replacements from Grizzly, then those broke after the lathe was out of warrantee. I bought cast magnesium replacements from smallparts.com. Not expensive. Much better.

7) The castings are not as refined as they are on more expensive lathes. You can address some of this by spending some time with a file. It's not reasonable to expect high end machining on a full-size lathe at this price point.

8) When I bought mine, the tool rest shaft was 25 mm not 1". This can cause some compatibility problems with some aftermarket tooling. I have seen references to Grizzly changing this to a 1" bore, but I would verify that before ordering.

That's a quick brain dump. As is obvious, this is not a very refined lathe. But it is a lot of capacity for not that much money. Whether that makes it a good choice for you is something only you can decide.

Happy to answer more questions if you have them.

Best,

Dave

[Lee Sorrell]

Last question I have right now. Can anyone tell me if the jet is worth nearly double the nova comet 2? Nova is $484 vs jet $899

[Tom Levy]

Absolutely not it isn't worth double the price. I got my jet 1221 on sale for 700, but still going back and knowing what I know now I would get a cheaper benchtop. Jet midi will be marginally better at bowls, but if you really want to do bowls you'll use a different, larger lathe anyways.

I actually saw the rikon 70-220vs on sale for like 450 from leevalley right before I really started getting into turning and I almost pulled the trigger and didn't. That was a mistake. That model used to go on sale quite frequently and it's about the same as the jet 1221, but I don't think they run sales on it like they used to.

If you want to buy from home depot with giftcards, that nova comet is what I would buy.

[Lee Sorrell]

Rikon was my first choice but only buying from home Depot really limits me. If they had good turning tools, sharpening etc I would get my lathe from somewhere else and buy accessories with gift cards.

[Mark Greenbaum]

I own Jet and Grizzly tools. My experience is that newer Jet tools are about the same quality as newer Grizzly tools, no better no worse. However, Grizzly sells so many different models that some are better than others, and some are likely dogs too. So, it might depend on the model being considered. I'd reach out to owners of the G0462 before making a decision. I have the G0766, and am happy with it so far (3+years).

I bought my G0766, before they even were shipped to the USA, based upon recommendation by this forum's Roger (?), and it's performed wonderfully. The largest bowl I've tuned has been 16" diameter on it, but I have a DIY extension, and have turned bedposts 5 feet long. 3HP is more than adequate, and with variable speeds from near 0-3500 rpm, I can turn off balances logs. My only dislike is the spindle height on this earlier model is about 2.5" too high. I turned last Saturday at the TN State Fair on a large Oneway Lathe, and I like my Grizzly better.