I recently sold my Jet 1442 lathe and posted on here a couple of weeks ago asking about new lathes, primarily Jet 1642 models. I got some good advice and several recommendations for the 2hp model. I then made a U-turn and bought the new Grizzly G0698 1847 lathe. It came about a week ago well packaged and undamaged. I assembled it and plugged it in. Grizzly advertises in their catalog, internet, and owner's manual that this lathe operates at 0-1200 rpm in low range but in actual practice the spindle pulses (herky-jerky) at anything below 130 rpm. At 50 rpm, which is the advertised low speed for the Jet lathes, this thing is completely unusable for anything, even sanding. I reported this to Grizzly technical support and was told that this is normal for any speed below 100 rpm. I am really disappointed since this was advertised as a machine that could operate at very low speeds and I thought this would work great for power sanding. My other less than favorable item is the tail stock. I find the threads to be a little sloppy and the whole thing not machined to very tight tolerances. I guess this lathe work but I think I am going to be a little disappointed every time I go to use it. Sorry for the long post but I wanted to put my opinion out there for others considering this machine. I am lukewarm on it and probably would not recommend that anybody purchase one without trying one out.


Terry