20 Best Metal Lathe For Home Shop (2023 Updated)

I bought this same lathe thru another vendor but they are all manufactured by one company in China. It comes in either true inch or metric. Mine is true inch. I have had mine for almost 20 years. Except for having to replace the control circuit board after 8 years, it has performed flawlessly.

I have routinely turned projects down to 1/1000 inch accuracy and even one project down to 1/10,000 inch accuracy under magnification. I grind my own HS steel cutting tools and machine mostly aluminum and Lexan.

I love the variable speed control. My wife is jealous of the affection I have for this lathe.

I bought my lathe recently when Eastwood did a pop-up sale in Cincinnati. I love the late and find it does a good job as long as you don’t push it past what it was designed to do. I see questions below and those were the same questions I was asking myself even before the packing grease was removed.

I searched around and finally spoke to a tech at Little Machine Shop and he told me that this lathe is a clone of a Sieg lathe so any replacement parts needed are readily available as are accessories like a quick change tool post and 4 jaw chucks as well as a milling attachment and on and on.

And if you’re interested in pimping your lathe there are even replacement chrome handwheels and knobs.

Packaged well. Shipped fast. Its a very sturdy unit. I recomend this unit if your looking for a smaller machine because of space limits. There are all kinds of up grade parts on the internet also but as it sits for building and making smaller peices its a great unit to purchase.

If I could put a minus 5 I would. I have used large circular saws before and had occasional kickbacks, but with this I had constant kickbacks. I could not get through one piece of wood, thin piece of moulding, etc without constant kickback.

Did not cut all the way through any piece of wood I tried. JUNK!! Very disappointed. I don’t know if I was doing something wrong, but I had to hold down red button while holding down starter and my hand just wasn’t big enough to hold both.

Pain in the hand! I tried to reach them by phone and after waiting forever, they just told me to go online. I went online to “chat” and it told me I had 17 min. wait. I didn’t have time to sit there, so walked away.

Came back to see they had asked me for my name, address, ok. Walked away and came back to see it had said, “was answer satisfactory to you?” What answer. I didn’t even get to tell “online chat” what the problem was.

Great help!.

I upgraded from a on old 4 speed Delta 14-10 gap bed with belt drive. I find the Powermatic 3520C does everything I want it to. It has the power needed for larger turnings, has no vibration, and is easy to set up and adjust for different types of turning that I do.

I have not tried turning using a table extension but did purchase the swing-away for the tail stock. It was difficult to get the swing-away aligned with the bed but after some support from Powermatic, I got it to work.

I bought this lathe in June of 2018. Its a great lathe, heavy duty and lots of power. The only thing I don’t like is the centers do not line up perfectly. If I drill a hole with 1-1/2″ Forstner bit the hole ends up being 1.

560″ No matter what I do it doesn’t get any closer than that. I called tech support but did not have much luck with him. At that time I said I wouldn’t buy another Powermatic. The only time this matters is when drilling a hole from the tailstock.

I got over that and yesterday bought a PM2014 lathe. I had a original 3520 that was made in America and it was perfect. I went with the 3520C for the new changes. I did not want a A or B because of the tool post clamp.

Re: PM2014 Wood Lathe Summary: The PM2014 Wood Lathe that I recently purchased (new) is absolutely not acceptable due to very poor quality control and substandard accessory parts. This lathe failed during use causing me personal injury, time off work and lost production.

Quality control issues: – Bed ways poorly machined, very rough circular machining grooves that made accurate component positioning difficult. – Warped casting at headstock end. Not sure of the impact on use.

– Mounting holes were not located as indicated in owners manual. The mounting hole patterns were also not to specification in spacing and tapped depth. – A loud ticking noise coming from within the head stock.

(A frequently reported problem. ) – When the tail stock live center is engaged, and a reasonable axial load is applied to the spindle a loud growling noise comes from the spindle bearings. When I looked up the detailed bearing specification for the “6005 ZZ” bearings used in this lathe it appeared to be a poor choice for this lathe especially considering the radial load that might be imposed when turning a larger bowl.

Lastly, the accessory parts included with the 2014 are of poor quality especially the spur drive and live center. A 3” dia x 14” spindle turning (dry Mahogany) came off the lathe at about 1800 RPM while making a light finishing pass.

There was no catch and the part was true and in ballance. I always check the tail stock for tightness during turning. In other words there was no logical reason for this part to come off the lathe. I’ve been turning professionally for many years and never had this happen before.

The result was that I was struck in the chest, with a great deal of force, by this moderately heavy, fast moving part. Furthermore, I have heart issues that require me to wear an inplanted pace maker – defibrillator.

The part struck me very close the the implanted device. I received a serious bruse and welt. Between the injury and trying to deal with the lathe problems, I lost several weeks of prime production time.

The jury is still out on whether there was any damage done to the device (or my heart). In Closing: I’ve never seen this level of poor quality control on any other lathe I’ve used. To say that I’m disappointed would be a huge understatement.

I’ve always been an fan of Powermatic wood working tools. I’ve owned both a 3520-A and 3520-B and used them for many years. They were fine lathes. What happened Powermatic?.

From day one this lathe has been nothing but issues. I bought it from the Pittsburgh rockler location, brought it home, set up and I was extremely disappointed. First thing I noticed with the one I bought was it makes a horrible ratcheting noise in reverse.

E6 error always gets thrown after 5 min The recess for the rear bearing is machined too big allowing too much play. There is a wobble in the headstock that prevents me from turning anything round. Extreme vibrations between 300 and 900 rpm Rockler referred me to jet instead of swapping mine out for another they had, now it looks like they are on back order.

Jet customer service just gave me the run around and the solution was to send me out new bearings, I entertained the effort and installed them when they got here. The same issues are still present. The lathe has contact on all 4 feet, perfectly level.

The wobble and vibration is present with spur, chuck, pen mandrel and with nothing. Needless to say I am extremely disappointed with the lathe and the way its been handled by jet and the passing the buck by rockler.

A new in box lathe that was malfunctioning the same day should have been replaced by rockler the same day. Not told its mine and jets problem now. I was sold on this lathe by a demonstration at rockler on the floor model, my lathe is nothing like that one.

Really wish it was. One star, because 0 is not an option. Hopefully i can change this review later is Rockler gets it together and makes this right.

As expected a couple of pieces were missing. The drive bit, and the face plate. It also took a little work to fix the error message but after that everything has worked well. The drive bit was relatively inexpensive and so far I don’t need a face plate.

I have made multiple items and so far things have been great. I would recommend the sell for parts product if you are willing to put in a little work. The value is great!.

The lathe performs very well and I do recommend it. There are some design characterizes that show opportunity for improvement. The accessory storage rack placements for example. With accessories in the storage slots on the left side, it is not possible to open the cover to change belt positions.

Also, I cannot remove the tailstock without first removing the accessories on the right side. Replacing the drive belt is overly complicated, and the top cover for the belts is not balanced to stay open.

This means it is in the way when you try to change belt positions to adjust the speed groups. Allen wrenches are not provided for pully/speed sensor remove which is required for belt replacement, and the wrench size is not provided in the documentation.

It is the little things that make the difference between a 4 star and 5 star rating.

I’ve had this machine a little over 2 years now (I first reviewed it in June 2020), and I’ve come to love this thing! It impressed me when I first got it, and it’s only gotten better since! I was gifted a Grizzly G0765 7×14 mini lathe, and it being a considerably more expensive machine with a longer bed, I’d been using it exclusively.

I’ve recently started using the Harbor Freight lathe and have been so much happier with the results that the green machine is now dormant! Most of my projects are aluminum or brass, but this thing will handle steel and cast iron as well.

Just keep in mind that you’re not using a $100,000 industrial machine and everything will be fine! This machine is made Sieg, the leading producer of quality mini lathes and milling machines in China, and although all the different brands look the same, there are major differences between them.

Upgrades to the machine have been few, but I did add a quick release tailstock kit and a quick change tool post, both from Little Machine Shop, and make a good machine even better! Everyone’s expectations are unique, but if you are doing hobby machining and don’t want to break the bank getting set up, this is a great choice!.

This is my first mini lathe, but I found it easy to use and figure out. If I could have bought the 7×12 in-store, I would have. Aquiring this lathe was a headache. I had to wait almost a month for my lathe to arrive (I was prepared for this) and it was damaged when It arrived (I was not prepared for this).

So I called customer service and they offered to replace the whole unit – great! So I followed their directions and a month later still no word on the replacement. I called customer service again to find out that I was given the wrong directions the first time I called.

This guy straightened things out though and 2 weeks later I received the lathe again. This one was not damaged and I find myself excited to use it. There are certainly some cleaning (packing grease and burs) that need to be done.

I already want to move to a 4 jaw chuck, but otherwise I have been cutting 17-4 SS and Gr9 Ti with ease. I’ve found the hardest thing to do is to get things centered in that 3 jaw chuck (hence the want for a 4 jaw chuck).

No threads cut on it yet.

For unseasoned lathe newbies 7 x 12 doesn’t you can turn a 7″ diameter part with the given set up. I had to buy a 5″ head stock chuck to turn a 5. 25″ piece. This new chuck barely clears the safety gate.

So don’t expect to turn anything bigger than about 5″ in diameter. Point two. The motor is more than likely designed to only use the small head stock chuck that comes with the machine. Reason I bring this up is because shortly after installing the larger chuck, the motor would stop mid-turn.

I’d have to power down to 0 speed and turn it back up. Would start right away but, having to restart the motor several times while cutting a piece doesn’t quite make for an efficient tool. Lastly. The first machine I bought online was received in good condition but the motor did not even turn on.

Returned it to a local store. The second one I received worked like a charm. Those are my 2 cents.

Having multiple Delta products over the years they have had strong and reliable products. They call this 46-460 industrial lathe, it is built solidly and has good attention to detail, from the pulleys and belt to the electronic controller, Even with all the shipping and multiple handlers everything was right on the money.

The price was fair, most of the small mini and midi lathes do not a electronic speed controller or a reverse this does and it makes all the difference. I gave it a simple but solid stand and set it for my height and comfort.

In the picture I am setting a glue block on a small 5″ sea grape wood bowl. I normally power crave hardwood bowls, but not everyone wants a 1 off more expensive bowl, and this gives me more options.

I love this lathe. One feature I like is the location of the electronic control. it is located above the working area so dust/shavings do not get into the control box. I have had another brand lathe that shorted out due to the controls located under the working area which was exposed to the dust.

The 12 1/2 clearance is a plus. 12 inch lathes do not handle 12 inch blanks. The Delta does. It is heavy enough to cut vibration with a good solid frame. The only drawback is the headstock faceplate.

The holes for mounting are flared and when attempting to center, the movement when installing the screws can knock it off center. I have purchased another faceplate due to this. Bottom line is I recommend this lathe.

CPO is the place to go when purchasing your tools.

This is a tremendously great professional-grade bench lathe. It comes ready to use right out of the securely packed box. Detailed instructions and safety reminders are clearly written. The on and off power switch allows for a lock, if needed.

Large variable speed dial with clear numbers. Large front access panel for belt changes. It is a very well built machine that is absolutely worth owning for your shop. And the motor is smooth and quiet.

Package was sturdy and contained everything without damage. The lathe is powerful enough to cut chromoly. I have tested mild steel, chromoly, and aluminum so far.

I use it few days, is good machine for the money and the accessories is in the package as they says.

For the price its great Im happy to say I purchase this Mini Lathe 7 .8x 23.6 And very generous technical support which is very important

I experienced very good service overall, quick delivery and after sales service. Lathe comes in good protective packaging.

Besides the box can banged up and the lose tools accessories scratch dented the machine, the paints and finishes was terrible it have literal fingerprinted infused in the paints some spots was poorly painted or over spray som much so there are dried paint drools.

The hands was not the one in d picture instead is was just a piece of round bar cut and tapped. The carriers is not the right height. And worst the gears were rough and poor made. Also if you leave outside d United stated I recommend you get a lathe from the UK.

Since the vfd controller won’t work well because they are designed for 60hz not 50hz so using a step-down transformer won’t do, you will get a loud screeching noise.

item arrived undamaged in wooden crate, many screws had worked loose or fallen out but all were in the box. could have came wish a detailed operators manual. But one is available on line to down load.

Also a spares list for items such as spare belt etc. as cant find a spare belt to fit if it does break, there is a YouTube tutorial for machining pulleys for a vee belt, which I will be doing, but some mods will have to be made for the motor adjustment.

The cutting tools are reasonable, but a set of replaceable tipped tools were obtained form Ebay for £25. Too sum it up a good item for the money, reminds me of my apprenticeship days at Ford Motor Company.

I have been turning for about two years. Started out on a little Grizzly mini lathe, moved up to a (very) second hand Jet lathe and finally purchased the 18/36 Revo new from Rockler. I looked at all the other options in this size range comparing features to cost and quality.

After going to several shows, shops, and demonstrations I always kept coming back to the Laguna 18/36 Revo. I have had the lathe about four days now so will give first impressions. Was delivered on pallet in cardboard box.

The box was very heavy duty. All lathe parts were cushioned in Styrofoam, bare parts were oiled to prevent rust, and everything in big plastic bag wrap to keep moisture out. I had to move the parts around to basement by myself and assemble lathe.

The parts are heavy. I think the headstock was the hardest part. felt around a hundred pounds. One person can do it but two would be nice. I am 57 and in good physical shape but still felt the strain the next day.

Easy to assemble. Parts well machined. I have the 220v version. don’t mess with the 120 volt model. You lose 1/2 hp that way. I also installed a shop fox dust collection system I had purchased on the lathe.

I did not get the optional lights or wheels. The lights are very expensive and I did my own lighting at a fraction of price. I had a 12″ weeping cherry blank that I had been saving for a larger lathe.

I mounted that rough block and spun it at 100 rpm to rough it in. Lathe did not vibrate at all. Quickly turned it true and raised the speed to 500 rpm for shaping. The inverter and speed control are outstanding.

Very smooth constant speed with plenty of torque. Love the power. I roughed out bowl in no time and now will let it dry for another couple of weeks since wood was still a little wet. The tool rest is nice and long.

comparable to many of the best after market tool rests. The included live center is also quality part. Absolutely love the laser engraved marking on tailstock. No more marking my drill bits with a sharpie marker to set my depth for bowls.

Speed control is excellent and so easy to use. Reversing for sanding is a snap now also. I am 100% pleased with lathe and would recommend to anyone. beginner and up. It is going to be very expensive however.

now I have to but a vacuum chuck for it. Really like that Nova Infinity Chuck. Oh, there is a collet chuck set. lol. I can do so much more with this lathe that I have a shopping list of accessories to purchase.

Rocker is going to love me.

I’ve only had the 18/36 for two weeks so I hope my impressions remain positive for years to come. I liked it right out of the crate. I strongly recommend you watch Lagunas YouTube tutorials on the unboxing and assembly of the lathe.

It will make the process much easier and quicker as will 2 or 3 strong friends. This lathe has everything I was looking for in an upgrade from my Delta 14/40 Iron Bed. Versatility, 220 volt power, stability, variable speed, quiet operation all at a price that didn’t break the bank.

Everything fit together perfectly right out of the box. No missing parts, no damaged threads. Fit and finish was outstanding! Absolutely no problem jumping from my old lathe to this one. I will definitly recommend the Laguna 18/36 to any serious turner.

It’s a serious lathe.

I bought this about a year ago when I decided to upgrade from my Nova Comet II. It took about two months to get the lathe and all the accessories in my shop due to shipping issues. Once I had everything set up, it was a joy to use and an immediate step up from my midi.

Then, last winter, it wouldn’t turn on. I had power to the lathe and blue numbers on the readout, but the headstock wouldn’t turn. I contacted Laguna tech support, and after a little back and forth, they told me they would send a new relay and on/off switch.

I got the new relay, but no written direction on how to install it. I eventually figured it out but bent the electronics face plate in the process. Getting into that space is not easy, and the design is not good.

Once I got the relay into lathe it seemed to be working fine. Fast forward to June, and the on/off switch finally showed up. Which is good, because as of today, my lathe is doing the same thing again.

I hope the on/off switch works, because I really like using this lathe, but it’s only nice to use when it works.

Purchased this lathe and brought it home. Worked ok and noticed it didn’t engage right in Auto feed. Made some adjustments and still didn’t correct the problem. I broke a carriage slider while making more adjustments.

The metal is very soft and they can be easily broken if not careful. Made my own slider and all is well but still had the lead screw trying engage but disengage when trying to use autofeed. After double checking I found the gears were meshing and lead screw wasn’t turning.

I find out that one of the plastic gear’s keyway was either not set right from factory and stripped out or it was just a malfunction from assembly. Was almost ready to return it but after I finally found the issue and fixed it, it works excellent.

I would definitely recommend. It’s a good little running lathe. Been using it for a few days now and it’s working well. Just make sure to go over everything. I’m sure I’ll make some upgrades but it’s working the way it should with no other flaws.

It’s a nice little lathe.

Surprisingly awesome little machine once you clean it up. Used heavily for 5 years making various items such as hinges, custom drawer handles, chess set, etc. During that time the lathe did not miss a beat, super reliable and low maintenance with acceptable accuracy.

This little guy could handle just about everything, aluminum, stainless, carbon steel, bronze, brass with excellent surface finish. People complain about plastic (nylon) gears for threading however I never had any issues, in fact they are easier to change, have less noise then metal ones and super durable.

Would buy again without hesitation. Items to be aware of. 1) You must clean the new lathe just like any new lathe. 2) Keep lead screw and drive carriage clean if you want to maintain good surface finish.

3) Ensure you gibs are adjusted and machine lubed for smooth worry free operation.

Our 7 x 10 lathe has been in the shop for 4+ years, and not a second of regret. We use it for prototype building of custom parts as well as some production machining. It was a great step up from a much older Emico Unimat precision lathe, and it does almost everything we need.

Right, HF does not sell many accessories, but Little Machine Shop has almost anything needed, including upgrades and repair parts. I put two DRO’s on the feed wheels, and a custom designed quick start modification for pushbutton start/stop at the preset speed.

Both give a new perspective to the machine’s capabilities. Others also sell the same machine, different branding and colors, but the same machine much higher than HF. If you have a coupon it’s an unbeatable deal.

When we’re ready for a mini-mill, I’ll be waiting that morning for the local HF store to open it’s doors.

Great little lathe for making smaller parts. Shipping was fast and the price couldn’t be beat. A few things were loose in the woode. Shipping crate but no big deal everything was there. You’ll need to dial in a few things to get it running true but if your buying a lathe I’m assuming that shouldn’t be too much trouble.

Got it unboxed, put it together, way beyond expectations. Fine little lathe. Cuts nice appears true and I love it. Wish it had a digital RPM indicator, but other than that it is a great little hobbyist lathe.

I would recommend this lathe to anyone.

Laguna did a pretty good job on this lathe. Well packaged, in the shipping container, as well as the equipment you get without paying for it. I will give them one ding on the tool post support. Mine would not clamp and hold the tool rest.

This 1 horse motor will need a very firm clamping action. Being a machinist, I fixed it to my satisfaction. Great job other wise.

Nothing but Joy. I sent back a lesser lathe to a different manufacturer and picked this gem up at my Rockler store. There was no assembly except to put the feet in place. Headstock / tailstock in perfect alignment, bedway smooth and well machined.

I also purchased the 10″ extension for outboard cutting, handles large bowls and platters with ease. One note to potential buyers, the tool post is a true 1″, more importantly it is a compression fit not a set screw lock down.

Being creative I cut a long groove in a 5/8 to 1″ adapter, still didn’t compress. So I epoxied the adapter in place and it works like a dream. This fix is not as expensive as replacing all of your tool posts.

All in all great tool, a fair price, and hopes for a lifetime of use.

I order the Laguna 12 16 lathe from Acme in late March 2020. Acme did a good job with keeping me updated, no issues. I waited 2 months for the lathe to arrive; Received around the 1st of June, but on August 2, 2020, the speed control unit quit working and the unit went out of RPM control.

Fortunately, I was only sanding a project, instead of cutting a project. Two months for delivery and only two months of use; interesting. For those that believe this lathe is made in American, you are wrong.

It’s designed in American but made in Taiwan. When this lathe worked it was ok, nothing spectacular nor outstanding when compared to other midi lathes currently on the market. I’ll see if Laguna’s Customer Service can timely provide the necessary parts or will there be another two month delay.

Given the price for this Laguna 12 16 lathe, one would expect the better quality. Perhaps, I received a “lemon” of a lathe, however given my experience, I would not recommend this Laguna 12 16 lathe to anyone.

This lathe is great! However, the Laguna live center, which has a removable 60-deg pointed head, makes a clicking sound, and has a catch feeling on rotation (once per revolution) and this causes a spindle to vibrate once each revolution.

I think it is due to how the locking pin hole was drilled (so you can remove the 60-deg head) and a defect in finishing of the rotating inner shaft at the hole drill site causes the catch (almost as if there is a burr).

Since I had another 60-deg live center, I replaced the Laguna one and the vibration and clicking went away and the turning was smooth. The Laguna live center is no good when I am trying to learn how to use a skew chisel and the vibreation showed up as periodic surface roughness.

How on earth do you get a Youtube link to add the video??????.

Before picking up my Revo 1836 I was concerned about the potential difficulty of unloading and assembly. We backed the pickup truck to the front of my garage. There were only the two of us. Miraculously, my son-in-law drove up with his senior varsity football player.

The four of us picked the crate out to the truck, set it next to it’s final location, cut the sides of the box down, unloaded and stood the legs into place, unloaded the assembled bed with motor and tail stock onto the legs, and installed all screws and hardware.

Total time. under 15 minutes. Electrical was already in place. Plugged it in and started making a mess. Couldn’t be happier with the setup aspect, or with the product itself. I will need to research the VFD to better understand why there is a control for adjustment.

but other than that, the lathe, after all. is just a lathe. A really great one.

We got this lathe over the summer and loved it. We were doing pens, bottlestoppers, pizza cutters, etc, and they were selling like hot cakes. We were stoked, because this seemed to operate as well as the similarly sized Jet lathe and just over half the cost.

It was starting to pay for itself quickly. Awesome! About a month ago, we started doing small bowls and christmas ornaments. With the heavier duty turning, the stock belt (thin, wears out fast) was getting very worn.

We ordered replacement belts from Teknatool, which arrived quickly. The official replacement they sell is much heavier duty than the stock one. No idea why they don’t include this one as stock. Anyways, nothing we could do would free the spindle from the headstock to replace the belt.

After going with more and more force, and bigger and bigger hammers, it wouldn’t budge. We then noticed that the through-hole in the spindle wasn’t drilled center, and had huge wall thickness discrepancies.

The spindle was likely deformed, and never coming out of the lathe. Teknatool support responded quickly, and sent us a replacement lathe. We set up the replacement lathe, made 10 bottle stoppers and a small bowl.

For turning the bowl, the faceplate threaded on easily, and when the outside of bowl was done unthreaded just fine. Our Nova Midi chuck threaded on just fine to hollow. When the inside was done, the chuck wouldn’t come off.

it would unthread half a turn and stop. We broke a tooth on the indexing gear trying to free it, so we called Teknatool support. This is what happened: *Teknatool support told us to find a non-broken spot on the indexing gear and apply more force, despite us telling them that that wouldn’t do anything except break it more.

Then it broke more. The spindle appeared ovalized inside the chuck. *They told us we had to get the chuck off for them to help us. Even though it was their chuck designed specifically for this lathe.

*More force, more penetrating oil, and more wrenching ended up breaking more indexing gear teeth, started to strip threads on the handwheel, and bent jaws on our chuck. I emailed customer service again, and Debbi Colon said she would get all hands on deck to help me figure things out.

I haven’t heard a peep out of anyone there in over a week despite multiple emails. ***None of this was caused by user error. We have many years experience with fine woodworking tools, all directions were followed, and set screws were removed prior to wrenching.

I received this lathe about 4 months ago and love it. I’ve turned several things with it and am really pleased. The reverse feature really comes in handy and I use it with everything. If I had to say anything was a dislike, it would be the tool rest mechanism.

It doesn’t move freely, I’ve adjusted it once which helped slightly, but just need to tinker with it some more, buy hey, that’s such a minor detail. Would I recommend this product to anyone? Yes. I now plan on purchasing the grinder since I don’t own one in my shop.

To start off, this lathe is wonderful and teknatool has great customer service. Make sure to register your warranty! The only things that stop me from giving the lathe 5 stars are probably the plastic locking devices.

Althouhgh they work fine, they don’t last forever so be gently. When turning between centers ALWAYS drive the spur in off the lathe. Do not use the tail stock to drive it in. Also, with the size of the lathe the location of the speed control is exposed to all sorts of wood shavings and dust.

I’d recommend always cleaning the speed control and motor off after each use, and during each use if you are turning for longer than an hour. Canned air or compressor work very well. Overall great lathe for a beginner to learn or for an expert to do some small scale projects like pens and such.

I’ve turned bowls up to 9″ wide and 5″ tall on this with no problem.

The Jet JWL-1221VS Midi-lathe is an upgrade from the earlier Jet 1220 model, with significantly better design and additional features. This is the fourth Jet lathe that I own (I still have a 1014, 1642, and 1220, in addition to the new 1221, plus a Robust American Beauty; I have been turning for over 20 years.

), and these Jet lathes tend to be an excellent value compared to other comparably-priced lathes. The 1221’s features are improved over the 1220, including a new headstock casting design (with easier belt repositioning access), an improved motor position/belt tension adjustment, and smooth tailstock quill movement.

The variable speed control and digital speed readout are well thought through and are convenient in use. I did not buy the matching stand (a bit pricy); unfortunately the location of the mounting holes in the casting are in a very inconvenient place, and are difficult to access wnen bolting the lathe to a surface.

The version I received was made before the spindle re-design for the 1221 had come out, so a call to Jet resulted in them sending me a new spindle having the upgraded design for free (as still under factory warranty) – another example of Jet showing excellent customer service.

In all, I am VERY happy with the 1221, and recommend it as a great starter lathe for newcomers to woodturning – a great combination of desirable features, motor with enough horsepower to do some decent mid-sized bowls, and a capability to get a bed extension that would make the lathe competitive with current mid-sized, 12″ lathes.

This provides the woodturner an excellent “bang for the buck” and a lathe that you will want to hang on to even if you eventually upgrade to a larger lathe, given its features and enjoyment in use.

I’ve had this lathe for a week now and very pleased. It arrived 2 weeks to the hour from when I placed the order at the store, pretty good for an estimated 2 week lead time. Assembly was very easy. Can’t think of anything I would change except it would be nice to have measurements inscribed on the tailstock quill.

Other than that I wouldn’t ask for anything different. Love the adjustable height legs, eliminated the risers and platforms the I had improvised with the old one. Plenty of power for what I’m doing. Everything moves smoothly and tightens up to stay in place.

Don’t see any reason to add weight, it’s stable when starting an out of balance piece. Very happy with this as the upgrade from the Comet.

after much research, I finally decided on this lathe to replace my Nova Comet II, which I really enjoyed. It took a month or so to get the lathe, after several late drop ship notifications. it took me about 1.

5 hours to get it assembled and set up, which I considered easy. Everything checked out, and the quality seemed great, except for a dime size dent on the side of the bed. it was apparent that something at the factory had hit it, as it was filed smooth.

I made sure the banjo moved freely over it, and it does. But it bothers me that after spending $2000, that they would send me a dented lathe. I contacted Rockler customer support, and was directed me to Laguna Customer Support, and of course their voicemail was full.

Had to call sales to get a hold of someone, explained the situation and got a case number. took a week to get someone asking for a pic, which I sent, but nothing else. I’ve been a Rockler customer for years, have purchased all my tools from them and probably spend $200 month there, and this is the way I’m treated.

Still waiting for the wheel base that I also ordered, can’t get a status on when that will be shipped. The lathe weighs 280 lbs, so it is hard to move around in my small shop without it. Finally got a chance to turn a couple of practice pieces on the lathe, definitely has more power than my previous lathe, but there are a few things that bothered me.

1- the controls are on the wrong side (left side), so if something goes wrong, you have to move in the danger zone to turn it off, 2- the color of the ON/OFF switches are black and gray vs. green and red as shown in videos and pics.

All my other power tools use green and red for ON/OFF switch colors, so been trained to look for them in case of emergency, which caused me some momentary confusion a couple of times. I will purchase a separate remote emergency switch with red paddle that I can attach to the right side of it.

Other that those items, I’m happy with its quality, but it can use some simple mistake-proofing improvements to make it safe.

I haven’t used it yet, but it looks great. I have allot of experience with machining. With that and a very nice video review of an identical machine, I believe that I can realistically expect that it will satisfy my modest needs.

VIDEO: https://www. youtube. com/watch?v=05vUCdzhoe4 With full knowledge however I can say that the packaging is the best i have ever seen. The delivery driver set it down out of the truck on its end.

Even though the UP orientation for the parcel was clearly marked. A barbecue grill delivered by the same company was also clearly marked and delivered also on end. That grill was pretty dinged up out of the box.

But the lathe would have been fine any way they left it. It was bolted to the bottom of a surprizingly sturdy box, considering that it was constructed of 1/4″ plywood. But the fasteners were amazing.

It was astually quite a job just getting the thing opened. That’s it. That’s my review.

This lathe came well packed a few days ahead of schedule right to my house. I unpacked it and set it up on the side of my car parking spot. I’m not an expert, but have watched a few YouTube videos about turning parts and this has done the trick.

I bought a few accessories to get going and was able to make some simple pieces I needed. It seems to run true and has done the trick for my simple hobby pieces. Best price I found anywhere. My friend is a retired machinist and said this one seems to be a good value.