New Grizzly G4000 9 x 19 lathe

[barryvabeach]

So based on some posts here, and the available space in my shop, I ordered a Grizzly G4000 . The manuals on their website show the space needed for this machine and the next size up, and i couldn't shoe horn in the bigger machine. There were a number of older Craftsman, Atlas, etc for sale, but I didn't feel comfortable being able to tell whether they were in good shape, and they also took up much more room.
It was out of stock when I ordered , but stock arrived a few weeks later ( I checked and they are out of stock again with no projected ship date ). The photo on the website and the online manual show a bolt is used to secure the tailstock - Good - bad news, the talstock comes with a cam lock. Good news because that was the first mod I was going to make. Bad news, it locks with the lever up, with the lever down, the tailstock is released. Unfortunately, at some point during shipping the handle must have fallen, and the tailstock came off the ways and bounced around a bit before I got it. A few dings on the chip pan and the tailstock body, but no damage to the lathe itself. Customer Service has been fantastic - I sent them an email, they called and asked if I wanted a replacement machine, and have called back a few times to make sure everything is fine. The one thing I noticed is with the tailstock quill fully extended, when I fix a dial indicator to the carriage and move it from one end of the quill to the other, it is out of axis .005. At first I complained, but then went back and saw the inspection chart says factory spec is .01, not .001, so it looks like it is in spec. There are two set screws to adjust the front to back location of the tailstock, but can't find anything to adjust the axis of the tailstock. So far, I have wired up an E stop and started on the donut mod. Overall, pretty pleased with the purchase.

 

[FortyFivePalms]

@barryvabeach,

So it's been a few months...any further observations?
I've been looking at the Grizzly products and am considering purchasing one.

Thanks.

 

[barryvabeach]

I haven't used it terribly much, but yes, I would buy it again. It is a massive upgrade over the 7 x 12 mini lathe that I had. Customer Service has been excellent, I had an issue with the tailstock extension, and they were prompt with email suggestions on how to address it and their solution worked fine. I have not done any threading on it yet, but did make the donut mod and that required a fair amount of machining ( it starts with a 4 x 4 by 3/4 hunk of steel). When I put it in my mini lathe, the hole bench vibrated, in the Grizzly, it was much smoother. From what I have read , the motor turns a bit too fast to make threading without white knuckles, I had planned to get a industrial servo sewing machine off Amazon to do away with belt changes and address the low speed, but belt changing has not been that difficult yet, so I have not bought the motor. Any specific questions, let me know.