I am going to purchase my first full size metal lathe soon(13X40). What are your opinions on Grizzly vs Enco? Would it be worth it to get the taper attachment? I am thinking it might come in handy to do points in butt sleeves. Also, is there an indexing attachment sold for these lathes or do I just need to try to make one? I have a porper model B that I cut my points on now but would like another alternative. I would also like to know how good it works to offset your tailstock for tapering.
Thanks for the input. I am also open to any other suggestions for setting up my new lathe.
Individual results may very and often do based on opinions, but the general thought on pecking order, from worse to best is:
Harbor Freight, Enco, Grizzly, Jet
They are all generally the same, but supposedly some have tighter tolerances out of the box than others. Also, Jet has onsite repair service. You have to ship things back to Grizzly if they can't walk you through fixes. I bought a Jet, and the onsite repair service ended up being very valuable. Again, individual results vary.
There are no indexing attachments sold for these lathes. You can rig something up. JR's Farm (name is Frank I think) posted a very nice modification that incorporated adding an indexing plate to the back of his chuck, and rigging up a pin system to use it for indexing. You can also mount an indexer to the ways and go that route.
As for the stock taper attachments, they are almost useless for cuemaking. I guess they might work for points in sleeves fine, but you still need the indexing. If you are going to taper butts and shafts on the lathe, you would need to set up tapering for those, which usually means you can cut points with the same tapering attachment you build. If you add an indexer to the ways to cut points, you just angle the indexer the appropriate amount for cutting points, and you don't need the tapering attachment.
I use a tapering attachment rather than offset my tailstock, and can't really say if it is better, but theoretically, when between centers and the tailstock is offset, the center hole is not riding square on the center, so it can't be as true as controlling the cutter instead. I'm not saying it isn't good enough though, plenty of people offset tailstocks to taper butts.
Kelly
