About 15 years ago I purchased a lightly used Grizzly G1496 mostly because the price was a steal. This was my first and still is my only lathe. I never got the turning bug but am getting into it a bit more now. I had more ambitions with it back then but it probably only received about 10 hours of use in those first 12 years. The lathe came with a large, heavy duplicator that I got tired of moving around so I donated it 2 years ago to a local turners club.

Three years ago I started to use the lathe a bit more but only to make small items about 70% of them being Christmas ornaments. Space has become more critical in my shop and (I can hear a lot of you shuddering now) I decided to downsize. I have no ambition to do any bowl turning but if I ever do they would not be large so that is the main reason I have decided to choose one of the 12 inch midi lathes. I know these size lathes don't weigh that much and mass is important; I have a 800 pound old iron metal lathe. A heavy stand with the lathe secured to it can help a lot.

I have done a fair amount of research and there are 4 lathes in my sites, although I am leaning heavily on one of them right now and am hoping that you experienced turners can help me with a final decision. The lathes are the Delta 46-460, the Jet JWL-1221VSR, the Rikon 70-150VS and the Laguna Revo 1216. I am leaning toward the Laguna and was tipped more that way after seeing that Mike Peace has one and likes it. I'm not really too concerned about warranty or customer service as that seems to be a crap shoot much of the time. So if you had to buy one of these machines today which would you choose?