Is this a good deal?

[Joe Mioux]

Is this a good deal....


A general 25-650Ml lathe for $1599? This is a display model.

16x42 lathe.

Joe

[Dario Octaviano]

At that price, I will go with Jet 1642 instead...just me.

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

I believe I agree with Dario on this one.

Bruce

[john blanchard]

I have the general, it is very nice, paid $1950.00 cdn for it, no experience with the jet.

[Gary DeWitt]

I've had that General for a few months, very good so far.
Paid $1750 for it new in box.
I'd not be worried about it being a display model, as long as there is no evident damage and it still comes with manufacturer warantee.

[Bill Boehme]

The speed ranges for this lathe are both the good news and the bad news -- the three speed ranges give plenty of torque that will put it in the same category as the Jet with a 2 HP motor. The bad part is that the three ranges seem to be a bit inconvenient because it means that you will be changing the belt around more often with one of the switching points being around 1000 RPM. Another thing that seems unnecessary about the lathe is the extremely high top speed of 3750 RPM.

In their defense, the speed ranges are not an arbitrary choice, but depends upon factors such as motor power, desired spindle torque, and nominal moment of inertia of the motor, drive train, and load. The speed ranges are highly dependent upon the above factors (the most important being moment of inertia) and the engineering design process involves finding acceptable comprimises for all four of these factors.

Bill