Chris,
I really know of no system that will give you the ultimate control you want for wrapping and still have the ability to have the power and speed that you need for turning grips.
It is pretty simple and straight forward to have a system with a motor that has variable speed and reverse and a slow enough speed for great drying control.
However, it is much more difficult to also combine the ability to turn a grip or other turning duties at 2000-3000 rpm.
Most folks have opted for a dual system. i.e. a nice power wrapper like the Renzetti and then one of the many different smaller wood lathes.
This setup also gives you the opportunity to have your power wrapper - in your "Clean room" but have the wood lathe in your "dirty room" that are separate from each other.
Of course, one can do both jobs in the same room, but for doing wrapping and finish work in the same area where lots of dust, dirt, shavings, etc. that is generated as part of the wood lathe turning work - makes it much much more difficult to keep the clean pristine dust free environment that makes power wrapping and finish work so much easier.
i.e. keep the clean jobs in the clean room.
But, then keep the dirty jobs in the dirty room.
For example:
From Penn State industries - a nice Midi wood working lathe with variable speed: [
www.pennstateind.com]
The bed extension for this lathe:
[
www.pennstateind.com]
Or a less expensive but very workable lathe:
[
www.harborfreight.com]
But, be aware that in addition to a lathe, one may find that he/she wants to purchase an additional head chuck or tail stock chuck or tail stoke piece.
In addition, the use of a bed extension is a very nice addition to extend the length of the bed. When working with multiple tools and different mandrel lengths; the use of the longer bed is a nice feature:
