I have the opportunity to purchase a grizzly g4791 for 1k. Wondering if it would be worth my time an money?
What type of work do you plan on doing with it? Any tool is better then no tool I my opinion. If it’s for hobby work, home automotive maintenance. Then sure go for it.
As Jason says, it’s going to depend on what you want to do, what materials you are going to work with, all coupled with a good understanding of the unit’s limitations. If you are going to work with aluminum, other soft metals and plastics, it’s not too bad, but if you need steel, it’s very limited on how much material you can remove at one time.
The price is right. As long as you look at it as a kit where you will need to put in some sweat equity to do the finishing touches and make it complete. The 1.5" spindle bore is nice. Does it come with all the chucks, jaws, and rests? The compound mount is junk, but easy to fix or just remove. 12" swing gives a little more room than the typical small lathe. Same with 39" between centers. The lack of good power feeds will teach you to crank smoothly. You can add an electronic lead screw to eliminate all the change gear shuffling. Not sure what the spindle tapers are, so be aware that some tooling might be uncommon. Grizzly is pretty good about spare parts, but for how long?
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I have a friend who makes some astoundingly intricate, tight tolerance parts on a machine like that. But be aware that it will take time and patience, and light cuts.
Having owned three Grizzly machines and uncovered numeriud shortcomings, I certainly will never buy another, BUT the price is right on that machine, and it looks tidy. Grizzly have good parts supply and support if you need anything.
You’ll be hard pressed to get that much machine for that price, and any issues with it won’t be too hard or expensive to sort out.
If you really get into machining you can sell it on for about what you are buying it for, and get something more substantial then. No real downside that I can see.
Appreciate everyone’s input, unfortunately I missed out on the machine. I haven’t ran a lathe or milling machine since high school (20 years ago). Thought it would be fun to play with more than anything.
Thing about a lathe and a mill is - once you have them - suddenly all manner of things can be made / repaired. They are out there - keep your eye open and you’ll find the right ones.