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Grizzly 0824 14 x 40 2" bore lathe...3 months old....issues since new

wgt500

Plastic
Joined
May 25, 2019
This is my first time posting here and I know it's a Grizzly, but I need some advise. I have a small fab shop, just two of us part time and needed a larger lathe so I bought this new in Feb of this year. Wow! has this been a crazy experience. Right off the bat the chuck had .006 runout and was replaced. New chuck is much better but not good, .002 runout on drill rod I have tested to be within .0005. The end gears were so loud you needed hearing protection....adjusted backlash three times and they finally got tolerable. There was sand in the gearbox mixed with oil...flushed out and changed fluid. Now for the real problems.....the machine will not cut consistant. It almost always overshoots the desired depth of cut by .001-.002. Doesn't matter if you are taking .020 cut or .002. The machine might cut .0005 taper on 6" or it might cut .001 on 2"... there is no consistency.

I've spent hours on the phone with their tech support and have literally performed every adjustment possible on this lathe including setting head stock bearing preload. Head stock bearings have good preload now and no measurable radial runout. All gibs have been adjusted as well as backlash. Something is "walking" and I simply can't figure it out. The techs are out of ideas and Grizzly now wants the machine returned for repair or replacement. I've generated more scrap on this machine in three months than I have total in the last forty years. It's killing me and costing shop time where I could be making money. Any ideas.....I simply don't trust their machines and not sure I want it or a replacement in my shop...can't afford to be a lathe mechanic on my own brand new machine.
Thanks for any help!
 
"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten. “

Benjamin Franklin


Can you get a refund? If not sell the POS, take your lumps and move on...
 
The problem is it is a cheap piece of chinese junk. The castings are so flexible it will never hold any kind of tolerance. The only thing you can do is return it for a refund, not an exchange. You can get a replacement but it won't be any better than what you have. I don't know what your budget is but you need some old american Iron. good ones are around but it will take a search. LeBlond is selling some nice stuff now, Taiwan though and supposed to be pretty good. See if you can find a nice used Whacheon. Google Greer Machinery, they are the people to talk to about Whacheon. They build a brick shithouse lathe that you will LOVE. I have SB, LeBlond, Holbrook, Milltronics and Lodge and Shipley lathes in my shop. all are 50x the machine you got with griz.
 
I know this will probably get locked but I think this is some good info by the OP.

Most just say you are throwing your money away without a good clean reason as to why. The OP just gave people a good heads up.

Return it.
 
Isnt Ohio the heart of used american iron. Why would you buy import?
You will probably need to start a new thread with a title along the lines of: what lathe can I get for $5K? List what specs you would like and you should get some help.
 
founder and principal of Grizzly Industrial is a forum member of Practical Machinist

screen name--Papagrizzly--it has been some time since I have seen him post--but
a private message may yield benefit
 
I dunno, just a couple of semi-educated guesses you may already have looked into. I assume this lathe has a camlock spindle nose. Does the chuck seat tightly on the taper while simultaneously making contact with the spindle nose face, and does the crossfeed leadscrew have any axial play (I don't mean backlash with the crossfeed nut, but any sloppiness in how the screw is retained?

Mike
 
It's a boat anchor

sell it/get a refund and buy a quality machine.

If it's this bad new it's not going to get better with use.
 
There was sand in the gearbox mixed with oil...flushed out and changed fluid. Now for the real problems.....the machine will not cut consistant. It almost always overshoots the desired depth of cut by .001-.002. Doesn't matter if you are taking .020 cut or .002. The machine might cut .0005 taper on 6" or it might cut .001 on 2"... there is no consistency.

All gibs have been adjusted as well as backlash. Something is "walking" and I simply can't figure it out.

A neighbor had one of these lathes. He liked it. He started a company that sold tools. Some of the tools were for Harley bike engines. The company had a catalog from which to order from and he was in the business for a long time. So he was selling engine repair tools to Harley owner for some time. He also had a collection of vintage bikes which he made parts for.

https://www.amazon.com/Grizzly-G0824-14-Gunsmith-Lathe-Spindle/dp/B07KFY78MH

He had a heck of a time leveling the machine. Did you do a good job with that?
You mentioned that the gibs have been adjusted. Are they tight?

If you can't get a refund then you don't have anything to lose by getting a replacement. I would not opt for a repair, but get a FOB again and hope for the better.
 
founder and principal of Grizzly Industrial is a forum member of Practical Machinist

screen name--Papagrizzly--it has been some time since I have seen him post--but
a private message may yield benefit

Odd...His machinery is banned here, yet he's a member to provide "help" ?
 
Hopefully lesson learned- give it back and tell them to keep it. Take the $$ and go find a used real lathe and put it to work.
Yea it will be used and have little things tweaked on it, but at least you will be able to make good parts on it. If you have 40 years experience, it should be pretty easy to work around any small issues that a used machine will have. Good luck!
 
OK guys...thanks so much for the responses. I will post later my response to each of your comments...just don't have time right now, but will this evening. Thanks again!
 
I'm going to be the contrarian here (shocker!), and say that you might be better off if you can cool off, be realistic in your expectations and learn to live with it.
What did you, and can you, expect from a lathe in this price range? if you think .002 is "not good" on a 3 jaw Chinese "standard" scroll chuck, what exactly ARE you expecting? thats about as good as its going to get without going to a steel body premium unit from anywhere. ("drill rod I have tested that's within .0005" is NOT good enough for this test, also, how many different diameters did you test at?)
also, regarding the advice to "get rid of it and go buy some real american iron" consider that you have already done the things that you will need to do AGAIN if you buy a used lathe of better quality, you will maybe have a better lathe, but the used unit will NOT be perfect in the door.
unless the seller will remove at no cost and refund 100% you will loose on that, and then have no lathe at all on top of it, and be back to looking, and that takes time.

for an accurate analysis of the situation, it is best to think of it as if you weren't the past owner, hadn't done the tweaking for the last 3 months, just bought the building and were asking the question is this worth fixing? if it is something small or mobile, the "toss it and start over with something better" is a much easier choice, but for a lathe of any size, unless you have the truck(s), gear, and rigging experience, and are experienced in buying used machines (successfully!) its value "in situ" goes WAY up.

a lathe is a very simple tool, so it shouldn't take long to tweak it "as good as it will go" really, from where you are now. a competent mechanic should be able to determine whats up with a lathe in a couple of hours, days, weeks for the worst cases, at least you have all the parts to it, look up some of the refurb/rebuild threads and see how long it takes!

for others considering cheap iron, the OPs experience is useful, I can say from experience that even decent name brand goods not at the bottom of the price scale may not work "out of the box" or off the pallet, so new and used, its all a crapshoot unless you spend some real money.
 
To me south bend looks like Taiwanese sun master, maybe not the best lathe in the world but light years away form the grizzly type (also cost much more), I worked for short period in repairs at a place that sold both so I saw them from the inside.
 
I'm going to be the contrarian here (shocker!), and say that you might be better off if you can cool off, be realistic in your expectations and learn to live with it.
What did you, and can you, expect from a lathe in this price range? if you think .002 is "not good" on a 3 jaw Chinese "standard" scroll chuck, what exactly ARE you expecting? thats about as good as its going to get without going to a steel body premium unit from anywhere. ("drill rod I have tested that's within .0005" is NOT good enough for this test, also, how many different diameters did you test at?)
also, regarding the advice to "get rid of it and go buy some real american iron" consider that you have already done the things that you will need to do AGAIN if you buy a used lathe of better quality, you will maybe have a better lathe, but the used unit will NOT be perfect in the door.
unless the seller will remove at no cost and refund 100% you will loose on that, and then have no lathe at all on top of it, and be back to looking, and that takes time.

for an accurate analysis of the situation, it is best to think of it as if you weren't the past owner, hadn't done the tweaking for the last 3 months, just bought the building and were asking the question is this worth fixing? if it is something small or mobile, the "toss it and start over with something better" is a much easier choice, but for a lathe of any size, unless you have the truck(s), gear, and rigging experience, and are experienced in buying used machines (successfully!) its value "in situ" goes WAY up.

a lathe is a very simple tool, so it shouldn't take long to tweak it "as good as it will go" really, from where you are now. a competent mechanic should be able to determine whats up with a lathe in a couple of hours, days, weeks for the worst cases, at least you have all the parts to it, look up some of the refurb/rebuild threads and see how long it takes!

for others considering cheap iron, the OPs experience is useful, I can say from experience that even decent name brand goods not at the bottom of the price scale may not work "out of the box" or off the pallet, so new and used, its all a crapshoot unless you spend some real money.

All of that is why I suggested a Whacheon from Greer Machinery. I know someone who bought from them and is satisfied. I use a Whacheon at a contract job I work at, It is equal to any machine I own. If I was in the market I'd buy one in a heartbeat.
 
I’m going to agree with cyanidekid. The issues with new imports are well documented and you’ve experienced some of the standard ones but like he said if you’re expecting better than 0.002” on a three jaw your expectations are just out of line and that tells us something about your experience level. While not the best machine, many people use similar or worse and turn out parts. They are relatively simple machines and you just need to put in the work to figure out what is going on. As has been said, you’d likely be doing the same or more on a used lathe. Have you leveled it, is it bolted down? What diameters of work are you trying to turn? Have you made sure the headstock is aligned properly?
 








 
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