My hobby is all 1/25th scale, brass, resin, plastic! This machine is magic. Big surprise for me was the accuracy! I would certainly recommend for this purpose.

This video is going on 2 1/2 years old and it is still just as useful and informative as the day it was first put on You Tube. I am in the process of purchasing my first metal lathe, I don't have a ton of money or the space for a large metal lathe and will most likely purchase a small or mini lathe. Not going to say I am ordering a Grizzly but it sure looks promising, especially after watching and listening to your in-depth video. You spoke using words that I understand and as such I learned a lot ! I will be watching more of your video's. Again THANK YOU SIR for taking the time to make this video !!!

Wouldnt most of us be more upset if we got a machine that DIDN’T require us to do some fiddling and fine tuning? It seems to be in our DNA to tinker and improve things. Great review, keep tinkering.

Great review! I think you summed it up nicely at the end when you said "always buy the biggest lathe you can afford".

Great review and walk through of the machine. About a year ago i almost bought this lathe i was in need of a small lathe to build parts to convert my car to fuel injection. Just before i pulled the trigger on purchases i found a 6x18 atlas with tooling and milling attachment. It might be 40 years old but it a great little machine. Accurate and runs as true as the day she left the factory. favorite part of machine is the thread speed 55 rpm. Keep up the good work.

Excellent review sir! You outlined your review at the beginning, stuck to it, and wasted zero time in expressing your opinions. I’m at the dreamer stage (no space or coin for a huge lathe), and learned a great deal about the “mini world” from this video. I’m subscribing and watching your other videos now!

About cutting left handed threads on the biggrr lathe. Put the tool in the holder upside down and spin the lathe chuck in reverse, using the ssme leadscrew nut engaging and direction(towards chuck). That is the way we used to make left handed acme threads.

well it's a lathe kzfaq.infoUgkxN9zrzkkhnjUF5PQbuA_B1gYdsfCu9k6z but it wasn't what i would have anticipated. Headstock, tailstock, carriage apron are manufactured from aluminum now not cast iron. The spindle diameter for the bearings is too small allowing for a few play in the spindle so I am using some blue Loctite to take out the play.

I can't believe I watched the whole video. It is exhaustively complete. Very well presented, thank you very much.

Thank you for the great review and comments.

Thank you. I appreciate the work you put into this review, and your realistic approach.

Thanks for a very thorough review. My father was a machinist and I've been using a lathe since I was five years old (and that was more than 60 years ago). I have a very old Craftsman 12 x 36 lathe in my hangar and I've been considering the purchase of a very small lathe for my home shop (hence the impetus to watch your video). Based on your comments, I think I will give some serious consideration to the G0602. One item to note: The centering of the chuck should be enforced by the fit of spindle flange shoulder into the bore on the chuck's mounting plate. If you're getting runout, it's because that fit is sloppy. Note two: English and grammar seem to have gone the way of the dinosaur. It was really refreshing (for a change) to listen to someone with decent grasp if these items.

This is an old video, quite well done. The standard answer to which lathe should I buy was his statement "the biggest you can afford." I very much agree with that. The cost of a lathe is less than half the cost of getting setup to do machining on it. Not only will you find it needs some improvements but you will be buying lots of accessories, tooling, measuring devices, etc. that may or may not be usable with your next lathe. I bought a much bigger first lathe. Had the space, power & $ to do so. No regrets. You will soon learn that you'd really like to have some way of milling. You can get, very limited, milling attachments for a lathe, to get started. But soon a little mill will be on your Xmas list.

Thanks! Plan on getting a mini lathe soon (learning the craft). I live about 90 minutes from Springfield (NW AR) so if the have it on sale it'll be an easy trip for me. Good luck.

Very great introduction to the machine. This will absolutely help with making a decision on what to buy. Thanks for your effort with this.

Thanks for a rational, reasonable review. I'd wondered how those little lathes performed. I run a full size WWII era iron monster, but can see the appeal of the small machines.

Very thorough review. That should give a prospective buyer some things to think about and sound footing for making a decision. Keep on keeping on.

Hey! I really enjoy your videos and this one in particular was pivotal in my decision to both buying one of these mini lathes and making a youtube video which fast forward 5 months has led to weekly videos and (at this point) 11k+ subscribers. So thanks :)

I can't thank you so much for this review. this is gunna be my first lathe

The best accessories for my mini lathe... 5" chuck, live center and a live bullnose center for tailstock for doing larger stock and tubing. Plus of course quick change tool post and lots of tool holders. Saves so much time.

Great video, very thorough and objective. I'm looking at a small lathe and I am at the same point you were when you bought this one so this is a great reference for me.

Great review. Covered everything most people need to know about buying a small lathe.

You can bond several neodymium magnets to the gear cover and lathe body. Makes detaching and reattaching fairly easy.

This was an awesome review. I was originally thinking of buying the equivalent harbor freight version, but after your in-depth review I'm gonna go with Sieg.

Personally, many years ago I went with the Big Dog Machine unit as their chucks are larger (4") and the unit has all that you have. I also added a 5" 5C chuck and collets for versatility. The Big Dog comes standard with both Steady and Follow rests and the tailstock is cam action as yours.

An easy way to keep the cover for the gears in place is to simply epoxy some magnets on the body and on the cover.

Fantastic review! im starting to get the machining bug and i found this video very informative and helpful. thanks for posting!! subbed

Good review. I've had my 7x12 LMS for over a year and like it a lot. I do recommend these lathes for beginners and they still have a place even after upgrading to something larger. I found a 10K South Bend on Craig's List which is terrific. Still, my 7x is not for sale as I continue to use it often. They are so fast to set up for a quick project. To anyone watching this review I can say it is quite thorough and the man has done an excellent job with the good and not so good. If someone thinks these are too small, check out what people are doing with the even smaller Sherlines. Thanks for taking the time to do this and keep your excellent videos coming.

I know this is a 4 year old video but it sure gives me a idea of what I want. I basically am going to make knives and need to turn down stainless stain nuts for the pommels on the end of the knife. and maybe some other small items. I like how you give us a place to get parts and upgrades. I hope there still available at the time I see this. But again thank you for taking the time for this video.

great review man. best one I've seen on a mini lathe

Excellent professional quality review which shows the lathe as anything but professional. I guess one gets what one pays for.

Great video! Thank you. I also have one of these. The transmission has plastic gears, coupled with the powerful motor, mine ate the transmission and stripped out the key to the pulley gear on the motor. For about $100 you can upgrade all the gears to metal, and it takes about 2 hours to strip down the lathe and replace all the gears. I would have some way to press out the gear shaft bearings. I also had the power switch go Tango Uniform. It cost about $16 to get that fixed. I have also had to fix the RPM gauge wire which in the transmission area, as it got tangled in the gears, and got eaten. The power switch cover which has the RPM gauge is made of real cheap plastic. All my screw holes are cracking. I am going to have to beef it up soon. Other then that.. The metal parts are pretty nice. I am seeing roughly everything you point out.

For people wondering how to get the lathe bolted down. What my shop ended up doing was we drilled clamps into the table and clamped it down to the chip tray. Works really well for these light machines.

thank you. this was what i could afford when i bought mine. i mainly work with delrin, copper, aluminum, and acrylics and it is more than adequate for anything ive thrown at it, but again it has ONLY been used for very light work. i am going to be purchasing a few of grizzlys & little machines "upgrades" for mine so that i can do some work with steel and put heavy loads on it. i really appreciate all the the videos youve put out. you definitely helped me learn how to use mine. Very well done review, pretty thorough. I personally think the biggest "pro" for me is that if you own one of these, you can purchase or make any upgrade or replacement part for it, and to me thats a huge deal.

Great video. I see it is from 2016 so several years old. Still great info. It was very thorough and I very much appreciate your honesty in how you approached your review with both the pluses and minuses. The detail in the minuses you explained was excellent. I have wanted a lathe in my own shop arsenal for years. I had the opportunity to get a large floor mount 3-phase lathe for cheap back in 2009 but, unfortunately, had no where to put it, nor a way to provide 3-phase power. I'm toying with the idea of what would be reasonable and these mini lathes have been an interesting idea. However - as you said very well towards the end as to if you would recommend it or if you would buy it again - you out-grew it. That's exactly what I don't want - getting something "basic" that I grow out of, instead of grow in to. The quick-change tool holder is a no-brainer on any lathe, in my book. I would have never given any thought to the flex in an aluminum quick-change base. Thank you for pointing that out as well. Very well-done review!

I've been able to bolt mine down. The way I did it was to take short bolts (I think they're M6) and screw from the top down through the feet for positioning. When they pass through the feet, use that to mark your workbench and drill through. Then once the holes are done, use bolts that are long enough to pass through the bench to the lathe feet and screw from the bottom. Use washers, lock washers and nuts to secure from the to secure from the bottom. I'm using the rubber feet for vibration dampening as well.

Best review of tool ive seen on KZfaq. Good job man.. engineer i assume.

I fixed my F/R/N threading bar detent lever by drilling shallow 3/16 holes where the dimples are on the body and then I turned the detent pin square on the end and brought it down to slightly under 3/16 and now I have a nice positive lock on it.

Nice review, thanks for the video! Jim

Good review, I have one that I bought at Busy Bee, and I have also installed a larger chuck. I believe Little Machine shop Has a small Latch like ours with power cross feed.

Hey Jeff. It's been over two-years since we've seen anything on this great little lathe of yours. Please consider a short tear down video of the control box, view of the panel and layout of the control switches. Would also like to see how the motor is mounted and wired to the panel. Cheers brother

A small amount (and I mean a small amount) of blue loctite is amazing for holding your hardware in place but forgiving enough to make adjustments when needed.

I have a slightly smaller mode of grizzly lathe and it works ok for me. I would like to put a longer and more robust compound slide on it though. I do agree with you on that the compounder could be way better.

Great review of the Grizzly. Thanks for posting.

Great video! I'd been considering getting the Harbor "Flake" model 'till I found your video. Thanks a bunch!

Your videos are very informative. Thanks for your efforts!

Great video, thanks. I'm thinking about getting one as an entry to the rabbit hole of machining. Wish me luck.

Hi Jeff, thank you for your great review of your mini lathe! I´m located in germany and started with hobby machining last year. I`m using a sieg C2 7x12 mini lathe and a sieg mini mill SX2 (brushless, high torque 500 W) Both sold by our local internet reseller in germany, trade mark ROTWERK. I really enjoy your tutorials, Many thanks again. Greetings from Frankfurt /Main Germany, Armin

Ok honestly i think that lathe is what you said it was, a good training machine to help you run a bigger lathe. What i basically see is smaller parts, smaller threads, etc. What i would like to see is its maximum capability. What kind of cut can it take? Does it turn threads with out chatter??? I can take your word for it but i would like to see some proof backing it up, but still some nice info on the modifications.

Depending on which type of 'horse power' you're talking about, my 550 watt version of this lathe is 3/4 horse power, so yours is about 17% more powerful. Since I bought mine barely used, and it's one of the 'deluxe kit' versions, it came with a lot of toys/tools that bump the new price close to $1,000. Fortunately for me (but not the seller) I paid just 1/3 of that! Overall my use of it will be to make new parts for not so new steam toys and miniature scale traction engines/steam rollers, mostly in brass and copper. Although it's capable of making new/improved parts in steel to make itself more precise! In the near future I intend to add the milling function to it. Then (fingers strongly crossed) I might be able to machine some metal gears to replace the silly plastic ones. My lathe came with a quick change tool post, but it's not much better than the standard one, so I've got a better one on order with extra inserts. The word on the street is, if you have the later metal headstock gears, the main bearings are now of the taper roller flavour. Mine has the gears, but I'm not going to strip it down to check the bearings. We should be thankful that China is still uprating/ugrading tools like this, rather than cutting corners - and quality - like a lot of Western companies. All I need to do now is move all that wood and the, now unnecessary, wood turning lathe to bolt this one to the same bench.

I wish I had know of little Machine shop when IK owned the earlier version of this lathe. I made most of the upgrades by my own design. I remove the chip pan and welded the lathe to a piece of 8 inch channel iron to study it up.

What I would recommend to make this lathe a bit more ridged to to purchase a piece of 1" or 3/4" thick steel the width and length of your lathe and bolt the lathe to it. You should not bolt a lathe to a wood table. As the humidity changes the wood moves twisting the lathes' bed cutting a taper. If you really want to get into it first bolt the head end down. Put a good level (Starrett or Brown & Sharp) on the ways at the head stock end. Shim under the steel plate until the bubble touches one of the lines. Now move the level to the tail stock end and shim under the lathe at the tail stock. This will compensate for any twist in the steel. I did this on my 9" South Bend, Iron legs, bolted to a concrete floor. It is accurate to .0005" over 24".

Great video, thanks!

Good honest review. As with most things like that though if you do enjoy using them you will tend to grow out of them relatively quickly.

Thanks For the video, I appreciate how in depth you got with the lathe. Keep up the great work and thanks for helping me pick out my lathe.

There are three points at the electronic board where you can change the tork power beside one with the speed power and beside these two one that makes the relation between tork and speed. If you mark the starting position to set it back afterwards playing with them can improve the tork but the the high speed goes down a little.. You have to try if you don't like it set it back to where it was.

Thank you for this video! I'm looking at buying one if these tomorrow. I have a watchmakers lathe I have been using for a while and I do love it for what I do but it would be nice to step into the 21rst century.

Excellent review! Very balanced. Cheers, Pat Lawless

Dude, AWESOME stuff. Very thorough, but still concise. Well done, sir.

On observation that might be useful is that these lathes usually have castings that are really quite good. What they lack is proper finishing and fitting. Parts that are milled or machined are neither smooth nor flat even if they look good to the untrained eye. People that buy these lathes typically don't yet know enough to identify this as the cause of issues nor how to fix it. The problems with parts moving against each other are all related to this issue. It doesn't take much lapping time to flatten and smooth contact surfaces but it makes a world of difference in how it works. Your cross slide is a prime example. Gib screws are either too tight or too loose and never seen to hold when you've adjusted them to "just right". Pull it apart, clean everything really well. Fatten and smooth the shim and all mating surfaces. Apply light lubricant and reassemble. Run slide up so that the bearing block for the lead screw is all the way in closest to the captive nut, loosen and retighten the pillow block screws to align the lead screw with the nut. It's most critical when they're closest together. If there is only a washer or spacer fixed against the bearing, install a needle roller thrust bearing. They're cheap and will make a huge difference in adjusting out backlash while keeping smooth rotation. Check out YT vids on lapping and creating flat smooth surfaces. For areas you can't smooth consider a Teflon shim or tape. It's also a quick substitute for some of the above work. Once you have smooth flat bearing surfaces you'll be and to adjust the gib screws to eliminate free play and still have smooth movement more easily and abruptly. Hard to explain the feel. What you'll notice is the lack of that mixed "moves but drags too much" state that causes you to to loosen up more to move freely but then suffer too much free play. The simple explanation is that the flatter and smother the two surfaces are the greater the surface area that's in contact when they first touch. Conversely, the thinner the gap that is needed between them to ensure they are not touching at any point. Only a thin film of lubricant is needed to float between two smooth flat surfaces. The greater the hills and valleys the thicker film must be to fill the difference. Sometimes it is suggested to work part against part to wear them in to each other. It will smooth the surfaces but it will not solve flatness issues over distance. As you spoke about fixes and repairs I figured about 400 to 500 was spent in replacing plastic with metal, better bearings and hardware fasteners. If you put that money in up front would you look to buy a lathe without these problems? Budgets though are a consideration. At least you can fix things over a bit of time. The questions in my mind is how much time was lost to downtime? How much confusion or frustration learning to use the lathe to figure out which problems were yours and which the lathe itself? Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Hi Jeff, very nice thorough review! I purchased the G0752 this year, and unfortunately, I'm not sure I could provide as many "Pro's" about mine. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for sharing the internal metal gears, i'll buy those immediately. i have the same lathe for 6 months and I always complains why those gears are plastic and I had the same issue that you had first on the low gear.

Excellent review. Thank you.

On the 4 way tool post. I've found they work much better when you actually put 4 of your favourite tools in at once, as they support each other. Used this way, I've found changing between tools much faster than using a quick change tool post.

Good video/information. I will be purchasing this model soon.

Easy to re-gear the lathe for even more torque. Kit on ebay comes with both gears and a new belt that is easier to get than the original belt. Lowers the rpms of the lathe but you almost never need the full speed. After you re-gear the motor you can make way bigger cuts with no stalling.

Jeff, another great video. Thanks for the in depth review and opinions. Even with its "limitations" you put out nice work and I enjoy watching you working on it. Also been enjoying your mill work. How's the CNC conversion going?

good knowledgeable treatise on lathe for guy like me always wanted a lathe,thank you.sir!

To anchor the machine to that bench you can buy or make 1/4" J bolts. Just drill holes along the perimeter and bolt down from the bottom.

Thanks! great review. Very helpful.

Something that may help with your forward and reverse lever is altering the tip shape of the piece that engages with the metal on the machine and drilling the detents deeper. You may also try some high quality nuts and set-screws without the big heads on your gibs.

Very comprehensive review. Well done video with great sound quality. Super recommendation at the end there, "get the biggest lathe you can afford". Question: It's been a few more years ... do you still have and use this lathe? Have you gotten a bigger lathe and kept this one for small jobs? Enjoyed this one very much. Thank you.

Thanks so much for this review. Excellent video and great information. Subscribed.

Thanks for the review, great to see a real review from a guy who really uses the tool. BTW, what Bass do you play ?

Great review . Everyone should start on a mini lathe. They are more forgiving then the bigger units.

great video, im getting it. super excited about it

I have heard that by adding the heavy 5" 4 piece chuck that it helps a ton for keeping tork at low RPM's...

You can replace the nuts on the gibbs with ones that have holes drilled for safety wire. Then safety wire and tension against the direction in which they would unscrew. Same method used in high vibration applications on aircraft.

8:58 - stickers from dema, steve and wes - i got three, that ain't bad

Thank you very much for the insight!

I'm loving your videos man. I'm getting ready to purchase this lathe myself after several friends recommended it. I'm a member of the custom high end lightsaber community and am ready to branch out beyond simple electronics installs. I want to start making custom high end crystal chambers made of intricately machined pieces and this lathe is going to be perfect. Your videos as well as Frank's have given me a much better idea of what I can expect from my first lathe. Thanks so much for these awesome videos!

Awesome review, thank you!!

got one yesterday off craigslist in Springfield 500.00 new. Now to get it cleaned up and adjusted and start using it

Great review...Is the compound adjustment better on the other Grizzly model you mentioned?

Hi: I used a 1 inch thick piece of pine just a little larger then the footprint of the lathe to help hold it still on my workbench. I can still slide the lathe around when I need to. This base wood really stops the wiggle of the machine. I hope this helps as you stated that you didn't know what to do about the lathe moving around.

Thanks - that was a really useful review.

cool video thanks for explaining so well. this is probably the lathe im getting to replace my harbor fright 7x10

Thank you for your video, I found it very informative. Keep up the good work.

Looks like a great lathe for model fabrication. Take care, be safe!

Thanks for the review.

I threaded 2 barrels - one for 1/2 x 28, another for 5/8 x 24 using only cross slide which as you know is not a proper way as it requires a LOT more torque running at 60 - 80 rpm and it turned out fine. You just need to take finer cuts.

I am thinking of getting one of these lathes to learn on. Would you still recommend this specific one? I also only live a couple hours from Springfield, Mo

Woukd you recommend this lathe for turning down tool steel, stainless, brass, and aluminum with a diameter or cube no larger than 3"?

I been looking at getting a 2nd Lathe and have been looking at different reviews on youtube, Yours is a very nice review the Lathe i have now is a Watchmakers Lathe from my Father. One of the items i am looking at cutting is HDPT #2 Plastic and Alum.

Nice review. Informative-THANKS. Mitch

For the gear cover, sand off the green paint in an appropriate spot, weld or rivet a couple tabs to the inside or outside of it where it doesn't interfere with anything. Get a couple magnets with the countersink in the center, such as www.amazon.com/Manic-Magnets-Force-CounterSunk-Neodymium/dp/B01DYL12WQ/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1475808458&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=countersunk+magnet Attach those magnets to the tabs you added to the gear cover and you have your quick access cover that holds itself to the lathe.

very good info. thinking of buying a mini. thank you!

Hey, maybe would be possible to drive the power feed with a stepper motor and use a sensor in the spindle to keep track of the revolutions, that way you eliminate the need of changing gears

I'm thinking about getting into hobbying with a lathe, I have a fairly decent budget (3000) so would you recommend I get this one, or given the obnoxious little things on this lathe should I upgrade to one slightly larger like the Grizzly G0602? I already have various other equipment like a band saw, drill press etc.