G0709 Review

[coolidge]

Oh shiny...I'm too sexy for this lathe, too sexy for this lathe...



I'm doing the CAD for the Baldor motor mount and needed some measurements off the motor. Guess I'll put a dust cover over this beauty.

 

[Chip Hacket]

Same here! I had some co-workers who said that they had nothing to do. I quickly discovered the opposite, though A LOT of what I have to do is stuff I don't want to have to do!

Yea that drain is slow again. You probably need to remove the P trap and inspect it. Probably should go ahead and pick one up at Home Depot while getting that bag of mulch.

 

[mksj]

Quite a few major issues, and replacing the motor. I would have waited for the PM-1440-2SM-V, seems to have had a number of improvements and going with a 3 phase motor has a lot of advantages. Hope there are no other issues with the lathe. Bison/TMX chucks are quite nice, worth the investment in my book.

 

[Shiseiji]

She's got an OIL LEAK fantastic!

Grizzly has clearly forgotten or decided to ignore a lesson they reported in a wood working magazine in the early 90's not long after they moved their production to Taiwan: When there is QC on site and a problem is found, the Chinese don't argue and fix it. Otherwise, it's buyer beware. It's their culture and ignore it at your peril. It's 30 years now and I've seen that observation remain valid. It's why even on sale I'm having a tough time ordering a Grizzly mill.

 

[coolidge]

Grizzly has clearly forgotten or decided to ignore a lesson they reported in a wood working magazine in the early 90's not long after they moved their production to Taiwan: When there is QC on site and a problem is found, the Chinese don't argue and fix it. Otherwise, it's buyer beware. It's their culture and ignore it at your peril. It's 30 years now and I've seen that observation remain valid. It's why even on sale I'm having a tough time ordering a Grizzly mill.

Regarding their mills, I purchased the G0761 a few months back and have yet to find a single thing wrong with it. That's stunning given how picky and detailed I am about inspection and setup. Tramming the head to the table on X and Y were so close to spot on I'm not sure I could get it dialed in any better so I left it alone. That surprised me. As typical it's a coin toss with these Asian machines. Some (a few) are stellar, others have stupid defects they slipped past QC.

Yes I was fully aware that the Chinese will willingly ship obvious defects if they can get away with it. So will Taiwan. Been there done that a number of times.

I would rate these two lathe issues as minor. While annoying really important stuff like spindle runout is near dead nuts. I could not get my Mitutoyo dial indicator needle to even move. The new test indicator that can measure 10ths arrived yesterday, I'm curious to see just what the spindle runout is if anything.

 

[Shiseiji]

Regarding their mills, I purchased the G0761 a few months back and have yet to find a single thing wrong with it. That's stunning given how picky and detailed I am about inspection and setup. Tramming the head to the table on X and Y were so close to spot on I'm not sure I could get it dialed in any better so I left it alone. That surprised me. As typical it's a coin toss with these Asian machines. Some (a few) are stellar, others have stupid defects they slipped past QC.

Yes I was fully aware that the Chinese will willingly ship obvious defects if they can get away with it. So will Taiwan. Been there done that a number of times.

I would rate these two lathe issues as minor. While annoying really important stuff like spindle runout is near dead nuts. I could not get my Mitutoyo dial indicator needle to even move. The new test indicator that can measure 10ths arrived yesterday, I'm curious to see just what the spindle runout is if anything.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Maybe the lesson was that for Grizzly, statistically, enough are acceptable to simply run the odds.

 

[coolidge]

Oil Leak Theory - So I gave this some thought as to how oil can leak out between the headstock top cover and gasket. Defying gravity because the oil fill level is many inches below the gasket. Oil splashes up there for sure but it's not submerged. So how does oil squeeze by that gasket and cover?

Maybe the oil is forced out under pressure!

My gear head mill gearbox is vented. The fill cap on top has a hole in it. The lathe headstock on the other hand is not vented. If pressure builds up inside the headstock, say from running the lathe for 240 minutes non-stop during the break in procedure, it's going to seek the exit of least resistance which is likely that top cover gasket vs say a shaft seal or something.

I think I'm going to drill a small 1/16" hole through the fill cap for a vent.

 

[coolidge]

I finished the CAD for the Baldor motor mount today, replacing the factory cast iron mount. Jetted over to Metal Supermarket and picked up the aluminum for it.

Tomorrow chips will fly on the mill.

 

[coolidge]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Maybe the lesson was that for Grizzly, statistically, enough are acceptable to simply run the odds.

Maybe, but returns and customer service dealing with defects has to be expensive. It could be Grizzly can't prevent China from screwing stuff up no matter how many controls they have in place. As you say, a percentage will be defective.

I found another one today. China come here...(SMACK!)

I went to remove the oil covered motor today. I couldn't get any slack in the belt by lifting the motor up. It looked like there was another 1/2 inch of up travel but it wouldn't budge. I pried off the belts instead. After I had the motor off I found out why. 2 of the 3 slots for raising the motor up/down did have another 1/2 inch of up travel...the 3rd slot however was already bottomed out on the bolt. lol The slot was obviously machined in the wrong location or bolt hole on the lathe was. They would have had to pry those belts on at the factory.

 

[Shiseiji]

They would have had to pry those belts on at the factory.

Production schedules, got to meet those production schedules.