Thread: Changing of the guard...........

Happy new lathe Fred. There has been much discussion and conjecture in the U.S. forums re. the introduction of the Grizzly iteration of this lathe. It is a major improvement over previous Grizzly lathe offerings, and the response from actual purchasers/owners is positive. I wondered a bit about the lack of a cooling fan (2 hp Jet and PM motors are TEFC), but owners say the motor runs cool.

And yours is the right (very Jet-like) color. Turn something big, and tall.

Hi,

I'm interested in finding out how this performs.

I was looking at one of these a couple of weekends ago from another supplier, not H&F, its been a while since I looked at the range of lathes at H&F.

I'm curious to find out how the quality is because I have the smaller EVS midi from the same manufacturer, and in the last year have had a broken toolrest due to poor quality cast iron, not uncommon apparently, a failed on/off switch mechanism, not the first one of these replaced on my model either, and a main shaft as the MT was running 2mm off centre.

None of the components from my lathe are used on the bigger one, so unless its a quality issue from the company, this one looks better, but then I ain't an authority on lathes, I'm still learning.

Since my wife and daughter are both turning now, 3 turners, one lathe, gets to be a bit of a log jam. And its SWMBO thats telling me that I need another lathe cause she can't get any lathe time.

I'm pleased this thread arrived, for two reasons, I'm interested in how the lathe performs and the thread may have saved me money as the H&F pricing is less than what I was quoted elsewhere.

Regards

-Gavin

Good looking lathe Fred. I bet you'll have plenty of fun spinning up bigger bits of wood.

I still love my Yellow Peril, it's the right height for me (181cm).

Fred
Happy new lathe

Originally Posted by artme

Like the look and sound of it Fred.

This type of sliding headstock set-up has been around for a while.

It looks a bit like the ones sold up here by David Drescher, too.

Yes I know Arthur, he tried to sell me one, but was too coy to give me a price

Originally Posted by Texian

Happy new lathe Fred. There has been much discussion and conjecture in the U.S. forums re. the introduction of the Grizzly iteration of this lathe. It is a major improvement over previous Grizzly lathe offerings, and the response from actual purchasers/owners is positive. I wondered a bit about the lack of a cooling fan (2 hp Jet and PM motors are TEFC), but owners say the motor runs cool.

And yours is the right (very Jet-like) color. Turn something big, and tall.

Texian, I only found out in the last few days, after I had paid a deposit on the lathe last Thursday, that Grizzly now also sell this lathe. I haven't seen a lot of forum feedback on the Grizzly lathe.

I have however corresponded with William Young, a member here and on the Penturners Paradise forum, who is particularly pleased with his Craftex 128 from BusyBee.

Originally Posted by scorpio_oz

Hi,

I'm interested in finding out how this performs.

I was looking at one of these a couple of weekends ago from another supplier, not H&F, its been a while since I looked at the range of lathes at H&F.

I'm curious to find out how the quality is because I have the smaller EVS midi from the same manufacturer, and in the last year have had a broken toolrest due to poor quality cast iron, not uncommon apparently, a failed on/off switch mechanism, not the first one of these replaced on my model either, and a main shaft as the MT was running 2mm off centre.

None of the components from my lathe are used on the bigger one, so unless its a quality issue from the company, this one looks better, but then I ain't an authority on lathes, I'm still learning.

Since my wife and daughter are both turning now, 3 turners, one lathe, gets to be a bit of a log jam. And its SWMBO thats telling me that I need another lathe cause she can't get any lathe time.

I'm pleased this thread arrived, for two reasons, I'm interested in how the lathe performs and the thread may have saved me money as the H&F pricing is less than what I was quoted elsewhere.

Regards

-Gavin

Gavin, the same manufacturer or the same supplier?

If the same manufacturer, I'd be interested to find out who that manufacturer is.

I'm hoping this lathe will live up to my expectations, but at the same time I'm not foolish enough to think that I won't have any problems. Problems are always likely with any manufactured product, particularly if it comes out of China. Unfortunately price is not always an indication of quality, I know I have owned 2 Rovers!

Originally Posted by Pat

Good looking lathe Fred. I bet you'll have plenty of fun spinning up bigger bits of wood.

I still love my Yellow Peril, it's the right height for me (181cm).

Pat, I was tempted to buy the Yellow Peril, I was really impressed with its' build quality, unlike that of its' smaller cousin. They must be made in 2 different factories!

The bed on the M910 is particularly impressive.

The real deal breaker was the 6 belt positions, to me they negated a lot of the attraction of the EVS.

The height issue could have been overcome, just like I have to overcome it on this lathe.

There is a bit of difference between 181cm and 167cm

fred you have bought the lathe i wanted to buy when i was looking at lathes a while back but the dollars stopped me at the time and thats when i opted for the little cheapie to get by on until i could afford the bigger lathe .
i like the sliding head stock idea on those lathes , and the heavy duty solidness ( is that a word ) of them .

Originally Posted by texx

fred you have bought the lathe i wanted to buy when i was looking at lathes a while back but the dollars stopped me at the time and thats when i opted for the little cheapie to get by on until i could afford the bigger lathe .
i like the sliding head stock idea on those lathes , and the heavy duty solidness ( is that a word ) of them .

Yes, you may remember I actually bought the same cheapie as I couldn't make up my mind which way to jump. I returned it a few days later as the runout, particularly inside the headstock Morse taper was horrendous. I only started checking it with a dial indicator after I spotted it with the naked eye on first startup!

I would still one day buy a (good) mini lathe for taking with me when I travel, but haven't found one yet.

Nice lathe Fred, congrats

Fred, Not bad for a beginners' lathe!, I think I might make a trip to Bendigo, now let's see, need 1. trailer, 2. Bolt cutters to cut chain on lathe leg 3. stealth 4. muscles--er I think I'll leave those at home-just bring a big bucket to drool in!! Amos congratulations, sure hope it lives up to expectations. Amos

Same manufacturer.

Sold by at least three suppliers in Australia that I'm aware of,

Some of the equipment and accessories from this manufacturer looks familiar to some of the products that I have seen at Carbatec and other woodturning suppliers.

The manufacturer is the Burt Group in China.

Here is the link if anyone is interested.

Burt Group Website

Regards

-Gavin

Hi Fred .

I heard that I was mentioned here in this thread so thought I better pop in and say hello. Between my own shop time as well as being owner and administrator of my busy Woodworking Friends discussion board site my time spent in other sites has been spread pretty thin.

Congratulations on your new lathe.
You now know what I meant about what a gut stretcher the components of that lathe are for weight. . It is identical to mine except for color and I hope you are as pleased with yours as I am with mine. Had mine for about 6 or 7 months now and have turned out tons of stuff on it. Loads of power on low range setting for turning some seventeeen inch diameter pieces of hardwood that I have already turned . That lathe will turn the tiniest of miniatures all the way up to practically anything a person would want to make on a lathe. .Loads of nice features on that lathe.

Have fun and enjoy your new lathe.

AFAIK there are lathe assemblers in China, not manufacturers.

They source their components from all over and a superficial similarity can mask significant differences in component quality.

Originally Posted by Rum Pig

As for the height just make a platform to stand on (not sure if this is what you meant by Duck board) I would have thought this would be good for you southerners so you are not standing on a clod concrete floor.

Originally Posted by rsser

Yeah, I'd go for a duckboard with some comfort mat or HD closed cell foam to stand on.

...and...

Nice buy! And, should handle the pens OK.

Bowl turning on the end works OK for balanced bowl blanks up to about 24", but side mount (swivel head) provides more lateral ballast for larger or slightly out of balance blanks. Unless you turn more than a few like that then end mounting is fine, especially if you have the extra workshop floor space for the end turning.

.....

Ern,

I stand corrected. I probably used the term 'manufacturer' loosely, the 'assembler' for these suppliers is the 'Burt Group' as per my earlier post.

There are a couple of other assemblers I looked at last year when I was looking at a lathe initially that are using common components with the Burt group, but the completed products are different in appearance.

My father in law imports metalworking equipment from China and deals with the Burt Group for their metalworking machinery. He's in China every couple of months.

When he seen my lathe, he immediately told me, 'oh, I could have got you one of those cheap, they are from the Burt Group'.

Wish he had of said something earlier, because of his business commitments, we are lucky to see him once or twice a year, and I didn't know he could get woodturning stuff.

I spoke to him last night and he reckons he might be able to get a 'sample' of the 1847 put in his next container if there is room, all I have to be is patient. He's finding out more for me today. The risk with doing it this way, is although the price will be cheaper, I can't check it for alignment etc, and if something isn't right, I'm stuck with it, so after the luck of my current lathe, I'm a bit hesitant. Price isn't everything. One thing he did say though, is usually samples are checked by the assembler, and samples are usually the best quality they have, its the ones after the sample that the quality control can be a bit dodgy on.

In these cases, the lathes are identical down to the paint jobs, model numbers, and some of the images from the assemblers website are in use by the Aussie suppliers, so I'm guessing they are the same. I' have the model MC1218VD, which is the midi EVS on the Burt website.

With all the hassles with my lathe, we are still enjoying using it immensely, though I think thats more due to the addiction of wood turning.

And also realising, that I started out turning pens in an electric drill powered contraption, and was enjoying that also, so as long as I've got something that spins the timber, I'm easily pleased I guess.

Regards

-Gavin