- Joined
- Jul 21, 2015
- Messages
- 10
I have minimal lathe experience. A year of vocational training back in high school when I thought I was going to be a career machinst, and I've had a benchtop 7x10 for the past 4 years. And it just died yesterday. I only used it for a few different tasks over the past 4 years and certainly didn't take advantage of everything it could do. And for the most part, it served all of my needs. But now that it'd dead and I need a replacement, I'm ready to upgrade to something bigger and better.
The majority of what I do is turning small aluminum bushings. I often punch holes through aluminum. And I routinely face short pieces of 4130 tubing. That's about it. But I do seem too be doing this stuff at least weekly. I don't do threading and I won't be converting to CNC.
My budget is unofficially $2000. I was originally wanted to stay around $1000, but after shopping around a bit, I feel the need to spend more to get more.
I first landed on the Grizzly G0602. This is an excellent size for what I want. And it fits the budget too. But I do not like the idea of changing belts for speed changes all the time.
So I discovered the Grizzly G9972Z. It's a slightly larger than the G0602 and has a gearbox. And for only a couple hundred more than the G0602. I'm sold on it, but Grizzly is out of stock for at least another 5 weeks and I can't wait that long. I need to buy a lathe ASAP and get it here as soon as possible. Is there something else on the market comparable in quality, features, and price to the G9972Z that you guys could recommend?
I also came across the Grizzly G0752. Basically a variable speed version of the G0602. I'm on the fence on variable speed. If I understand it correctly, slowing down spindle speed also reduces motor output, right? You can't have full power when running at 20% speeds, right? I had some issues with my 7x10 when I ran it slow, it was very easy to stall the spindle on a heavy cut or when drilling. I often had to run it much faster than I wanted to just to prevent stalling, but it tore up tooling. I want to avoid this with my new lathe, and I don't know if I should stay away from 1HP variable speed stuff or not.
Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
The majority of what I do is turning small aluminum bushings. I often punch holes through aluminum. And I routinely face short pieces of 4130 tubing. That's about it. But I do seem too be doing this stuff at least weekly. I don't do threading and I won't be converting to CNC.
My budget is unofficially $2000. I was originally wanted to stay around $1000, but after shopping around a bit, I feel the need to spend more to get more.
I first landed on the Grizzly G0602. This is an excellent size for what I want. And it fits the budget too. But I do not like the idea of changing belts for speed changes all the time.
So I discovered the Grizzly G9972Z. It's a slightly larger than the G0602 and has a gearbox. And for only a couple hundred more than the G0602. I'm sold on it, but Grizzly is out of stock for at least another 5 weeks and I can't wait that long. I need to buy a lathe ASAP and get it here as soon as possible. Is there something else on the market comparable in quality, features, and price to the G9972Z that you guys could recommend?
I also came across the Grizzly G0752. Basically a variable speed version of the G0602. I'm on the fence on variable speed. If I understand it correctly, slowing down spindle speed also reduces motor output, right? You can't have full power when running at 20% speeds, right? I had some issues with my 7x10 when I ran it slow, it was very easy to stall the spindle on a heavy cut or when drilling. I often had to run it much faster than I wanted to just to prevent stalling, but it tore up tooling. I want to avoid this with my new lathe, and I don't know if I should stay away from 1HP variable speed stuff or not.
Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
