The Chinese 9 X 20 Lathes

[rake60]

As most of you already know my current lathe is the Chinese made
Grizzly G4000. I've seen a few others here also have Grizzly and
Harbor Freight machines. They're great once you get them set up
properly! When you open that crate what your getting is basically a lathe
kit. All the parts are there, but the assembly work needs a little attention.
When I first got mine I cleaned all the cosmoline off everything, bolted it
to the bench that I had built a week before and leveled it up. Chucked up
a piece of 1018 cold roll stock and tried to take a cut. I've seen better
finishes on the foil balls that bounce off the back of your head in the lunch
room from time to time. :lol: So I set to the task of really checking it
over. .002 spindle run out. :x The gibb adjustments were sloppy, to
be polite. The 2 bolt compound clamp wasn't near rigid enough.

Grizzly's tech support line was helpful in adjusting the spindle bearing
preload. I made a new 4 bolt compound clamp based on the plans by
Steve Bedair http://bedair.org/clamp/9x20clamp.html
A rough spot on the ways was causing a taper. A fine stone took care of
that. They DO take some tinkering to make them as good as they can
be, but for the price they can't be beat!

 

[wareagle]

I have a Grizzly lathe myself. It is a G4016 and has been great so far, or at least for an untrained amature as myself. The first thing that I did with mine was to lose the cheap chuck that came for the tailstock and replace it with a Jacobs chuck. The second thing was to install a QCTP.

For the money, and for a HSM environment, I think that these machines can't be beat.

 

[ed miles]

Rick, forgot to thank you for the info on Little Machine Shop. I ordered 3 of the 39X4 six inch backing plates and they should be here the first week of August. I avoid the UPS Broker gouge by delivering to a friend in Detroit and he brings them up when he is here on business which is about once a month. It works well for small stuff, but for large items like 2 Grizzly 4000's I get my step daughter to pick them up with one of her Logistics trucks to bring it over. It is considerably cheaper with a regular broker and I honestly believe that brokerage fees for UPS is a profit center.

Ed