9 x 19 Lathe Question

[Jeff02]

9 x 19 Lathe

ENCO / HARBOR FREIGHT / GRIZZLY / JET

Who’s to buy ??????


I have been told they are ALL the same, and I guess the deciding factor would be customer service.
I do have a Local Harbor Freight just a couple miles from the house, so I would not need to pay freight. But would I suffer in customer service? I have never bought from HF so I can’t say. I have bought from ENCO and GRIZZLY and their customer service has been first rate, though I could save a hundred dollars or so if bought from HF.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Philjoe5]

Jeff,
I own the Grizzly 9x20 and it's been almost trouble free for 2 and a half years. I did have a few warranty issues and they were taken care of promptly. If you visit the 9x20 lathe forum yahoo group you will find satisfied customers of all of these vendors. Service issues from Grizzly or Enco seem to be addressed rather more quickly compared to HF but in the end you'll probably save some $ buying from HF. It seems to boil down to how comfortable you'll be replacing parts on your own as opposed to having someone talk you through the process over the phone. Hope this helps

Cheers,
Phil

 

[Tin Falcon]

Jeff:
With any lathe purchase remember to compare the included tooling and accessories. A cheaper price on a lathe that has minimal tooling may not be a better deal.

a well tooled lathe will have
a 3 jaw
4 jaw chuck
face plate
follow rest
steady rests
centers drill
chuck for tail stock etc
this is one of the downfalls of the proverbial 7 x 10 you jet a 3 jaw chuck the rest is ala carte

 

[rake60]

I bought the Grizzly because it included a 4 jaw chuck and face plate.

The 4 jaw chuck is pretty much useless. It's too big and the jaws do not go past center
which is a real PIA when it come to turning small eccentrics. I have to shim a jaw to get
enough reach. For the price difference between the Grizzly and HF, you save enough to
buy a decent small 4 jaw chuck. As for the face plate, I have never had it on the spindle.

The down side is, if you buy the lathe from HF and have a problem with it there is practically
no support available. Grizzly will stand behind their products and honor their warranty.

Rick

 

[jack404]

G'day Jeff

mate i think its a factor of many things

who is near you ( save cost of shipping and return if needed)
what deals do they offer , extra tooling, engine size ( many vary) etc
length of warrenty and how they deal with issues

i went through this for a 7 x 12 and found 5 viable options but put it to a bloke i have bought machines off before and he bettered the best deal i found

i doubt he made much from me on that deal, even if he did on other machines in the past i got a good deal compared

find your best 3 and put it to the dealers can they beat the best deal you found

in times like these where things are getting tough you will be surprised at the deals people will do if your talkin cash dollars in there business today

i like the grizzly specs and tooling personally and a mate in Arizona told me he did a great deal with them

he did not want the extra tooling ( he had it all already) but wanted a small rotary table so they gave him that instead of there extra's ..

to him that deal was the best..

think about it figure what you want compared to the offers and put it too them, business folks want $$$ and i think you could do ok if you bargain hard at the moment

best of luck

cheers

jack

 

[Tin Falcon]

Jeff: the other thing I have have done with dealing folk is ask if they can throw in a little extra tooling to sweeten the deal rather than asking for a reduced price.
IMHO a quick change tool holder is one of the first upgrades to any lathe.
Tin

 

[Jeff02]

Thanks to ALL for the advice.

I have narrowed it down to two, GRIZZLY and Enco.
Thanks again for you help!!!!

 

[44-henry]

Grizzly service is pretty good and I have had many opportunities to use it. In addition to five of the 9x19 lathes I have purchased three 9x42 milling machines and a 6x12 surface grinder. Of these machines we have had to replace motors on two of the mills and one of the lathes, switches on two of the mills and the surface grinder. The last mill they shipped us had a metric dial on the knee, Grizzly quickly shipped us a replacement dial; however, it was the wrong size and we ended up re-working it to fit rather than wait longer for a replacement. Last year the bearings on one of the 9x19 lathes seized and we shipped this and one other lathe back that had electrical problems at the same time.

I have been a loyal customer of Grizzly and have done a lot of business with them, their machines are generally a good value for what you receive, but I have learned that they take a lot to keep running. Though Grizzly has been willing to accept items for repair, you still have to go to the trouble of getting it ready for shipment and a lot of the time I have ended up having to replace major parts (switching motors and switches on the mills was not exactly what I consider a good time). All of this is worth considering before making a purchase. I have come to really like the 7x12 mini lathes that we also own since they are much easier to work on and also have a lot of features that the 9" lathes lack. I like the fact that they can be moved around a lot easier and also that they can be totally stripped down in a couple hours. Just a couple things to think about for what its worth.

Regards,

Alex Johnson
University of North Dakota
Technology Department

 

[BillH]

You might also want to consider the 8X14 from Lathemaster or HF.
The 8X series have sturdier more rigid construction.