Any Info on Grizzly G0602 10"x22" Lathe

[frisco]

On a whim last night, I bought this Lathe cause I'm building a Custom Motorcycle and need to turn some small parts out. Mostly Aluminum and a few steel.

I have a full size Bridgeport style Mill with Mitotoyo DRO and was thinking of getting the "G4003G Gunsmith's Bench Top Lathe with Stand ". The one Mac just acquired recently. I just couldn't pull the trigger when it came down to it. Not really for cost but, more for the size, weight and learning curve. I need to be making parts in a couple of weeks.

I have been looking at the some of the other 110volt machines, 7x12's, 9x20's, Lathemaster 8x14, Smithy and thought this one whould be better for the $1k price tag.
It has a 1" spindle bore (which means bigger main bearing than a 3/4 spindle bore machine I think?) with a 5" chuck and weighs in at 500lbs.

I usually do a bit more research before a purchase...... But I got desperate and excited at this new model...... When the Grizzly lady told me they were "in stock again" and had only 10 units in inventory. I had my credit card out faster than you can say "What just happened"

So now I'm doing a little reverse research! I figure I can learn on this one, get though my bike project and get a real one later if I want.

Oh yah.... I may even try to make some one off flashlight bodies for myself!!

I know I'm gonna have to get some tooling, Quick change tool post and other little (pricey) trinkets.

Any info on this machine would be appreciated.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/G0602

frisco

 

[gadget_lover]

I would have thought that someone would have replied by now.

That's a nice looking machine, and one that will do an awful lot of good work. The 18 inch travel will handle long lights without re-mounting the work.\

I'd like one like that.

Daniel

 

[Torque1st]

That lathe will make a whole lot of parts for you and will last for many years. Congratulations.! It is not an industrial type production machine by any means but I don't think that is what you were looking for.

You can spend double the cost of the machine on tooling easily. See if you can find any surplus tooling dealers in your area. With a mill and lathe you can make a lot of tooling for your machines.

For more information on machines in general try the CNCzone:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/index.php?

 

[scott.cr]

If you need to be making precision parts in a couple weeks and you're not an experienced "lathist," I would have to suggest farming the work out. It could take at least that long to get to a point where you'll be satisfied with your work. (I'm only saying that knowing what fanatics bike owners are.) There's a lot more to it than just machining the part when you take surface finish into account, and each material has its own behavior on the lathe.

Come to think of it, it took me an entire day to figure out why tool bits are sharpened the way they are, and another entire day to be able to reproduce the edge angles on a bench grinder. After seeing that hand-grinding them with any accuracy was near impossible, I spent another week making a grinding fixture!!

I probably scrapped 30 lbs. of aluminum before making anything worthwhile on a lathe, and that doesn't include the mistakes that still happen from time to time!

BTW, $1k for the lathe, probably another $500 at least for tooling... tool bits, boring bars, threading bits (internal and external), grinding wheel, etc etc etc.

I'm in no way trying to discourage you from lathing... this is THE BEST tool in my shop. Very very versatile. Even the doors on my cupboards and the newels on my staircase at home are straighter and stronger due to my mini lathe, and that's no exaggeration.

Back to the task... Grizzly 10x22 lathe is a nice piece of gear. If you have the facilities to unload it from the truck, level it and mount it, this lathe is surprisingly accurate and sturdy. I don't know if the bed is hardened but I have a friend with this exact lathe and it has thousands of hours on it and looks like new.

 

[Torque1st]

If he has a full size mill and is proficient on it the lathe will be easy to come up to speed on. I am going the other way, I have a full size 20x60 lathe and just acquired a mini-mill.

 

[frisco]

Well.... Got my lathe all mounted and leveled. Havn't used it yet, But so far I'm very impressed! Very beefy for a table top 110volt model. The bench in the photo is 4 feet long.



Here is my Full size 10"x54" Mill with DRO



frisco

 

[Rothrandir]

That's a nice looking machine and a nice setup!

What I wouldn't give for that mill though...

 

[Torque1st]

Congrats!

That is a lot bigger & better mill than I have. But mine will do the job for the small stuff I need to do.

Most machine tool manufacturers know that material cost is a very small portion of the cost of producing a machine. Making things "beefy" is usually not a real problem until it comes to shipping. I think shipping a container from the far east costs the same whether it is full of iron or ping pong balls. Even then shipping is usually not a big cost on a new machine. It is usually a big cost when buying a used machine tho. I picked up both of my used machines locally.

 

[Data]

That's a nice looking machine and a nice setup!

What I wouldn't give for that mill though...

It is a nice mill BUT, I am really hoping you will get a VMC. :santa:


EDIT: Oh yea, and BTW, I am first in line if you do.

 

[scott.cr]

That is one sweet setup... I'm glad you got it up and running, and so soon after posting!!

 

[fludunlimited]

Hi frisco

just ordered one of these myself this morning.
how do you like it so far.

thanks, Brian

 

[LukeA]

So, how does it perform?

 

[65535]

I was thinking about getting that lathe actually, I will be interested to hear about this.

 

[LukeA]

I was thinking about getting that lathe actually, I will be interested to hear about this.

I searched it on Practical Machinist. There was one thread. I'll save you the trouble of reading it. It said: "Yeah, that lathe should be pretty good for small work." (presumably like aluminum flashlights) Then they started ranting about somebody's poor-quality Jet lathe and China in general.

This is lookin like a nice upgrade from the rather useless wood lathe currently (not) in use at home.

 

[65535]

I hope to hear more from the OP with some hands on experience with it, looks good for the small work I have been wanting to do for forever.

 

[fludunlimited]

picked up mine today
now i have to learn how to use it

 

[frisco]

I've been getting my feet wet with the G0602. So far I am pretty pleased with the results.
I spent some time getting things "straight" as well as the break in stuff.

I'm going nuts with the dials on the lathe. Going to look into a DRO system for it.

Bought some import tooling from http://www.cdcotools.com/
QCTP, bits and such. Still have a few more things to get.

Tonight I turned some 304 Stainless. I took passes up to .010 The finish is pretty good.

frisco

Picture: 1" 304 Stainless Cut with Import Tolling from CDCO
The cool thing about this lathe is the 1" spindle bore.

 

[J!m]

Not bad! 304 is not particularly pleasant to work with either... Keep it wet with oil and play with your in feed speeds to get a mirror finish. Tool angle may need to be adjusted as well- I can't tell well from your photo...

You may want to consider a few ideas as a 'new' lathe operator:

1. get a small cup full of cutting oil and an acid brush and keep the tool covered while machining. It is cheaper than adding a flood coolant system (plus less messy), and you have it handy all the time.
2. Do some research on coated tools. TiN is good fore some metals; however it is horrible for others (aluminum for example). For Al I like to use TiCN coated if I can get it. Uncoated tools are great for many general uses; however for the best finish off the machine, you may need to have several types of inserts.
3. Get an Aloris tool post. It is expensive, but you will save MANY hours changing tools and setting tool height. When you add a new tool, get another tool holder and set the height once. When you change tools, you just hit the lever, pull the old tool, drop the new one on, tighten the lever and go.
4. Don't cover your ways with WD-40. This is a common mistake. Use only way oil for your ways. Clean them well and oil them after every use and your lathe will last forever.
5. Cover the ways with a shop rag so the chips do not get into the cross slide and carriage ways. If you use paper rags, you just close them up and throw them away when you are done. This makes clean-up super fast and easy. This is nice when you have only one lathe, and changing materials often. Cloth rags get shaken out and re-used.
6. DON'T CUT WOOD on that lathe. Mixing wood, with metal filings and oil is a recipe for disaster. Fire is the least to expect; however dependent on what you are cutting, and errant spark could cause spontaneous combustion or small explosion. Don't risk it.
7. A cheap dial indicator mounted on the lathe will make cut depth much easier to figure out. A 'mighty-mag' base with a 0-1"X.001 indicator is cheap and will make your life easier. The in-feed resolution is usually quite course (like 1/10 inch per mark or so) and holding tolerance can be tricky- particularly on an ID bore job, where you can't see what you are doing. If it is on a mag base, it can also be used for the cross feed measurement. Until you prove to yourself the hash marks are reliable, assume they are not. The only lathe I have used that I trust is the Hardinge Super-Precision (my favorite lathe) which has .001 graduations on the cross-feed and it holds true. (I use a dial indicator for in feed on that too- actually they normally come from Hardinge with them).

Have fun! A lot of 'bad' parts will come off before you gain confidence. As long as you accept that, you will be fine.

 

[Torque1st]

Good advice above!^^^

Use Kerosene for a cutting fluid when cutting aluminum. it will keep the aluminum from building up on the tool and provide a better surface finish.

 

[fludunlimited]

Good advice above!^^^

Use Kerosene for a cutting fluid when cutting aluminum. it will keep the aluminum from building up on the tool and provide a better surface finish.

how about flammability with kerosene?
and dose any one know where i could get
quick retract tool post. no sure if thats what its
called.