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Got an early Christmas gift of a Laguna Revo 10-16 Mini Lathe today from Rockler. It is on sale for $349.99, that's 30 percent off of the regular price of $499.99, through tomorrow, November 30th.

It's a variable speed lathe, 300-3600 RPMs, in three steps with a digital display. At least that's how it's advertised, but the low speed on mine is 425 RPMs. Will have to double check that with a tachometer at some point.

Have not had a chance to turn anything with it yet, but it seems like a nice, solid, quiet running lathe with plenty of low speed torque. It was made in Taiwan and the fit and finish is decent, with the mechanisms for the banjo and tailstock locking securely with little effort.

It came with a live center, spur drive center, 6" tool rest, safety glasses, and knock out bar for the two #2 morse taper centers. The owners manual was missing, but the store is forwarding one to me. There is an accessory fixture that allows mounting the tool rest at the left end of the lathe for outside turning of about 16". I passed on the accessory, but may pick one up sometime.

The Grizzly G0657 lathe looks identical to the Laguna, but I noticed a few differences that may be simply typographical. The Laguna says it's motor is 3 Amps, while the Grizzly says 6 Amps. The Laguna is made in Taiwan, while the Grizzly owners manual list China as the place of manufacture. The Grizzly is on sale in their Christmas catalog for $325.

I looked at a couple of Jet mini lathes while at Rockler and the Laguna looked to be of similar quality, but with variable speed and digital readout, I think the Laguna was a better deal, especially at the sale price.

P.S., it comes with a 3" face plate as well.

Sounds like a decent lathe for smaller items. (nothing wrong with that).

I have heard that most of the mini lathes are actually made in the same plant in China. Jet, Harbor Freight, Grizzly, Rikon, etc. Each to their own branded specs of course, but the same guys none the less and many parts are interchangeable. I don't this for a fact, just rumor, conjecture and here say. I do know through Little Machine Shop that many of the mini metal lathes are in fact produced in the same plant in China Read Here. Again the differences are in the specs provided by the brand and the Quality Control, these do have an effect on price. Since the Laguna MSRP is $500 I suspect it is on the higher end of the QC scale for that class of mini lathe.

Congratulations on your early Christmas present. I would love to have a smaller lathe, but no room for it.

I noticed subsequent to my earlier post that there is a decal on the top of the headstock listing the speed range of the Laguna lathe that matches about what I'm getting on the digital speed readout. The box it came in, as well as the Rockler and Laguna web sites say the low speed begins at 300, but the decal says 400, and my readout says 425.

Regarding those metalworking mini lathes, they all seem to be made by a company called Sieg in China -- http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_lathe/Sieg/Sieg.htm -- They also make the mini mills sold by those different vendors. All of these look identical except for the paint color and some accessories. Some of the mini mills differ only in the type of spindle that have -- R8 or Morse Taper.

For the woodworking lathes it likely is a bit different because there are a number of design variations in similarly sized lathes, but clearly some are made in the same factory and simply painted a different color. The Laguna was made in Taiwan, some of the other brands come from mainland China.