Hey Mike,
Although I haven't gotten the lathe back to its absolute former glory, I did get it to where It was working well enough to hold a fairly tight tolerance and provide a reasonable finish. One of my buddies has a 4003G too and I used it while mine was taken apart. To my surprise, his lathe was providing finishes equal or worse than the ones I've been complaining about through this entire thread.He said that this was the condition it had been in since day one, He told me I was too picky! :lmao:
Regardless, I ordered some replacement bearings from Grizzly and had my machinist friend install those, he's replaced a lot of precision bearings and knows his stuff. It provides reasonable finishes with all of my tinkering now. I sold the lathe a few days back and showed the buyer the finishes, he was just fine with them.
So although this is a bit of an anticlimactic resolution to the entire thread, I would have to say it is concluded. I do appreciate the help though!
As for the customer service, I've found that thus far I haven't had the need to call in for any replacements or help with PM's machines so there hasn't been an opportunity to see weather he'll send me parts or not. I don't foresee having to test Matts customer service either in the foreseeable future, He has served me very well over my last two purchases.
Thank you everybody for any and all advice and information you provided for me. Although I was not able to fix the lathe to my personal satisfaction, I learned an absolute boat-ton of information along the way!
P.S. If you need someone to completely rip your 4003G apart and put it back together again, I'm your guy! )
A valiant try James! Please let us know how the new lathe works for you.
WallyW