New lathe...now what?

Welp, good news is it works and will turn aluminum. Bad news is its way under powered and stalls pretty easy. will be talking with grizzly about a return. They will probably say no because its been used once, it is what it is, maybe this one will come in handy down the line for something... EXTREMELY fun though, I will definitely be continuing the adventure of metal work!
 
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The nice thing is you are doing this for fun, so speed of production is not critical. You might just be trying to take too large of cuts and / or running it at too low of a speed. Small lathes can be run at fairly high speeds.

There are lots of good videos on youtube, but when I first got my lathe I found these videos very helpful. Unfortunately he hasn't done any new ones for several years.

Aimed at the beginner and he keeps things pretty basic. The videos tend to run 10-15 minutes so not too hard to stay focused. He is using a Sherline, but almost everything he covers applies to most small lathes, and some even to larger ones.

MiniMachining
 
Pcmaker said:
I would return to Grizzly, save up and get this instead, which they have on sale sometimes for $500

www.grizzly.com

7" x 12" Mini Metal Lathe at Grizzly.com

<h1>G8688 7" x 12" Mini Metal Lathe</h1> <h2>A great starter lathe offered at an incredibly low price!</h2> <p>Powered by a 1/3 HP motor, the 7" x 12" Mini Metal Lathe cuts right-handed and left-handed threads while easily fitting on your bench so you can machine your own parts.</p> <p>The G8688...
www.grizzly.com www.grizzly.com

or this, which is probably the same exact lathe, only with a different branding for the same price you bought your current lathe, only with a LOT more features.

www.ebay.com

550W 7"X12" Precision Mini Metal Lathe w/Lamp Woodworking Milling Metalworking | eBay

Equipped with nylon gears, this lathe machine is wear-resistant, durable, more accurate rotation and professional. The full-length splashguard provides maximum protection. Power of Motor: 550W DC Single Phase.
www.ebay.com
Click to expand...

I think either of these two would be much better lathe for your purposes., If you take yours back and politely tell them that you expected to be able to cut threads, they might be able to cut a deal for you,

These two lathes are still small and lightweight, but they have the real advantage of a power driven lead screw and some change gears to enable you to cut most of the common threads, and having power driven feeds will also give you a much better finish.
 
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Just exchange for a larger Grizzly, they should be able to do that and give you credit for the first one
 
Let us know if you talked to Grizzly about exchanging or returning, and we'll help you pick out a good lathe for the money
 
I'm in the middle of emailing back and forth with Grizzly. Guess it's getting sent to the "Technical Support Department" to research further - standard run around. lol.

Grizzly does have some other ones I would be interested in and they do have things that would work better.

Now the hard part is not to use the one I have (until I hear back) to get machine time in on..
 
Worst case just tell your credit card company you want your money back, you're not happy with the product
 
Yep, if they don't accept your return, it's going to make them look bad in ths forum in my opinion and I will probably cease to do business with them.
 
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