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I was having a conversation with a friend of mine just a little while ago, and he mentioned that he had purchased himself a newer metal lathe that he is using at work. As such, his personal machine is sitting unused in his garage/shop. He offered to loan it to me for making stems. It is a wee little thing. I am pretty sure it is a Grizzly G 8688 7x12. I know it is lightweight, but I figure I can get my feet wet and see how I like cutting stems with a cross slide. I'll still do stummels on my wood lathe.

Does anyone here have any experience with this machine?

LittleBill wrote:I was having a conversation with a friend of mine just a little while ago, and he mentioned that he had purchased himself a newer metal lathe that he is using at work. As such, his personal machine is sitting unused in his garage/shop. He offered to loan it to me for making stems. It is a wee little thing. I am pretty sure it is a Grizzly G 8688 7x12. I know it is lightweight, but I figure I can get my feet wet and see how I like cutting stems with a cross slide. I'll still do stummels on my wood lathe.

Does anyone here have any experience with this machine?

It is similar to the 9x20's. It should do the job well for stems and decorations.

PremalChheda wrote:It is similar to the 9x20's. It should do the job well for stems and decorations.

Thanks Premal.

PremalChheda wrote:

LittleBill wrote:I was having a conversation with a friend of mine just a little while ago, and he mentioned that he had purchased himself a newer metal lathe that he is using at work. As such, his personal machine is sitting unused in his garage/shop. He offered to loan it to me for making stems. It is a wee little thing. I am pretty sure it is a Grizzly G 8688 7x12. I know it is lightweight, but I figure I can get my feet wet and see how I like cutting stems with a cross slide. I'll still do stummels on my wood lathe.

Does anyone here have any experience with this machine?

It is similar to the 9x20's. It should do the job well for stems and decorations.

"Well" is a strong word, IMO.

This 7x12 is generally horrible, but I mean that in the best possible way. It's good for learning with, I suppose, but not for making things. Maybe the one I've used was just a bad one, but wow, the one I used was horrible.

Tyler wrote: "Well" is a strong word, IMO.

This 7x12 is generally horrible, but I mean that in the best possible way. It's good for learning with, I suppose, but not for making things. Maybe the one I've used was just a bad one, but wow, the one I used was horrible.

Haha. I figure there is very little downside to this deal. He volunteered to deliver it as well - we don't live that far apart, and it will be an occasion for a cigar together. I figure the worst that will happen is I will waste some time and some rod stock, but will gain a little experience in how a metal lathe works, or is supposed to work. Maybe I'll get the bug for something nicer, and maybe I'll decide to keep turning them by hand on my wood lathe. There is the chance he is preparing me to offer it up for sale to me, but I can politely say no.

I will soon have opportunity to visit the local Grizzly showroom as I am passing that way on business. I intend to spend some time checking out their lathes. There is a Jet dealer near there as well, but all they have are the bigger machines that are way more than I will ever need, unless I change my occupation in a very serious way.

LittleBill wrote:

Tyler wrote: "Well" is a strong word, IMO.

This 7x12 is generally horrible, but I mean that in the best possible way. It's good for learning with, I suppose, but not for making things. Maybe the one I've used was just a bad one, but wow, the one I used was horrible.

Haha. I figure there is very little downside to this deal. He volunteered to deliver it as well - we don't live that far apart, and it will be an occasion for a cigar together. I figure the worst that will happen is I will waste some time and some rod stock, but will gain a little experience in how a metal lathe works, or is supposed to work. Maybe I'll get the bug for something nicer, and maybe I'll decide to keep turning them by hand on my wood lathe. There is the chance he is preparing me to offer it up for sale to me, but I can politely say no.

I will soon have opportunity to visit the local Grizzly showroom as I am passing that way on business. I intend to spend some time checking out their lathes. There is a Jet dealer near there as well, but all they have are the bigger machines that are way more than I will ever need, unless I change my occupation in a very serious way.

Yep, sounds like no downside at all. And there are several upsides, not least is that you'll know not to buy one of those.

Tyler wrote:

PremalChheda wrote:

LittleBill wrote:I was having a conversation with a friend of mine just a little while ago, and he mentioned that he had purchased himself a newer metal lathe that he is using at work. As such, his personal machine is sitting unused in his garage/shop. He offered to loan it to me for making stems. It is a wee little thing. I am pretty sure it is a Grizzly G 8688 7x12. I know it is lightweight, but I figure I can get my feet wet and see how I like cutting stems with a cross slide. I'll still do stummels on my wood lathe.

Does anyone here have any experience with this machine?

It is similar to the 9x20's. It should do the job well for stems and decorations.

"Well" is a strong word, IMO.

This 7x12 is generally horrible, but I mean that in the best possible way. It's good for learning with, I suppose, but not for making things. Maybe the one I've used was just a bad one, but wow, the one I used was horrible.

It is possible the 7x12 grizzly I used may be different than the G 8688. The one I used was accurate and could handle up to 3/16 inch cuts on Vulcanite rod without a problem. Drilling was also good on it, but the tailstock barrel travel was limited.

Well, I'll confess to hyperbole based on using one 7x12 of another paint color. Grizzly is a brand I trust more than some for these imports, but the version of this lathe I used was a mess. Could be it was abused.

My first lathe metal lathe was a Taig. It took my current PM12x36 to feel I was back to the rigidity of the Taig. Even the jet 9x20 was a frustration after the Taig. Of course the size of the Taig was frustrating, but it was so precise and rigid as to be exceptionally good when it was doing tasks small enough.

Adam Davidson used a version of the 7x12 for stem work until just a few months ago, and he does some of the most beautiful stem work I've ever seen. I started with a version of these as well. You'll be able to learn how to make stems, gain tons of experience, and even perfect your skills with one if you apply yourself. And you can dream about what to replace it with when the time comes!

Last night I drove over to my friend's house to pick this thing up. He and his wife invited my wife and I to dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant on top of the whole deal. Of course, he may be softening me up for some more burls when the glacier in my field melts. But anyway...

I spent some time on this machine this morning, and learned a few things. The most important was that this ain't a gonna work out for me no way no how. It is too itty bitty for me to manipulate the controls. Here is one example. My delicate little paw just doesn't fit between the controls. That's a deal breaker right there, at least for lathes of this size. My thumb was pretty sore by the time I was getting the tenon close.



I also learned that with all the cranking back and forth and stopping to check, I am not really going any faster than I can on the wood lathe. I learned a bunch more stuff, one thing being that I would really like a metal lathe someday, but this isn't that day. And when that day comes, it is going to have to be a lot bigger.

I don't know how you use tools at all with such delicate little fingers.

If that thing has a working DRO on the cross slide then your tenon cutting should be a 3 minute job, truing cut, measure, calculate, rough cut, final cut, polish

caskwith wrote:If that thing has a working DRO on the cross slide then your tenon cutting should be a 3 minute job, truing cut, measure, calculate, rough cut, final cut, polish

Working is the operative word. It doesn't. He told me about that ahead of time.

Ahh bugger, a DRO is the BEST addition anyone can make to a lathe I think.