I am noticing there are less and less questions related to Grizzly lathes as we go along, even though we hear of turners pulling the trigger on the purchase of the G0766 or G0800 lathes. It seems that in the threads and postings both on the main turners forum and here on the GGMG the information contained in them seems to satisfy most questions from perspective or new users, which is a good thing. Maybe it's just the busy-ness of the summer months, or perhaps that the G0766 is currently out of stock and has a September delivery timeframe, but things have definitely settled down somewhat on both this group and on the main forum.........at least we have not had any new threads in over three weeks and posts have fallen off since we got the picture posting fixed by admins. Hope your summer is going well!
well it helps that we are no longer working the bugs out of the g0766, I think there was a lot of traffic just with that issue.
I finally have gotten back to some turning. No issues with the lathe, just my choice of old spalted silver maple, and zeroing in my homemade hollowing tool. Next step to to fabricate a laser guide to prevent blowouts. The G0766 is doing great and might need a serious cleaning, and maybe relocating in my garage/shop.
Well I have an issue - I purchased a G0766 a couple of months ago and have had a new grand daughter and a bunch of company since then so I really haven't gotten to turn much - I am a beginner so I need lots of practice! Yesterday I went out to the lathe for a couple of hours. I put a chuck on it and turned a small piece but I noticed that the chuck was turning "out of round" so I stopped it and began to investigate. I finally noticed that one of the last threads on the spindle was flattened a bit and it appeared it was preventing the chuck from seating all of the way. Have any of you experienced spindle threads that appear to be damaged? Any suggestions?
Your issue is that the spindle boss is manufactured to 1.260" diameter, and many chuck inserts are manufactured to 1.250 on the spindle hole.....a difference of .010". And the remedy is to take a flat file, run apindle at about 500 rpm's and take a smidgen off, testing the fit of your chuck often, until you get the chuck to thread all the way back to the face of the spindle. The lathe specs are manufactured to Grizzly specs so their chucks are proprietary, and Grizzly gets the sales, but most all owners do this incredibly easy mod instead. The 0766 is a fine lathe.
Roger, I am aware of the size problem on the of the spindle boss. I have a Hurricane chuck and it appears to have threaded on well in the past and I have read other revues from people who had G0766 an d a Hurricane chuck fit well.. I took the faceplate that came with the g0766 and threaded it on backwards so I could see where it stopped threading on and it seemed to stop at the last thread that looks a little flattened. I would like to believe that the problem could be resolved as easily as filing down the spindle boss but I am not sure. Is there another way I can test that out?
If it is indeed a thread problem, a small triangle file can straighten a thread out if you are careful....again testing the fit after a little adjustment. I have 3 Hurricane chucks, and I had to take down the spindle boss so that they and my Nova chucks would seat all the way back. Even if you could get a 1.25x8tpi nut at a hardware store, you might could straighten a thread out that way. Even a die of the same size as your spindle, but it has to be Acme threads. Perhaps Brice wil see this and chime in with some help, as he does some machine work.
Part 1. I wasn't satisfied with my original spindle and had Griz send me a replacement. But it wasn't much better. I think that they sent me three spindles before I found one that met my own criteria. I have to give Griz tech support kudos for working with me. One of my spindles had exactly the problem that you mention and I did exactly what you did by putting on the faceplate backwards. On my problem spindle they apparently cut the threads then they machined a groove for the grub screw on the faceplate (so that it could run backwards without risk of unscrewing). That groove was probably cut with a dull cutter because it pushed some material into the threaded area.
Part 2. If it was me, I would pull out my set a jewelers files. You can pick up a pack of about ten for a few dollars at places like Harbor Fright. Perhaps Lowes or Home Despot might carry them also. These are the ones with ~ 0.1" shaft and cutting areas around 1/8" wide. If you work carefully and methodically you can easily repair that end thread so that the chuck or faceplate will screw on all of the way. You will only need to remove a little bit of material where the thread touches the groove. It would also be possible to run a die on the spindle but a decent die is fairly expensive. The thread is standard 60 degree UNC (I think that stands for Unified National Coarse thread). But 3 or 4 minutes with a hand file would work just as well or perhaps better because you are only focusing on a single damaged area.
Thank you Roger and Brice. We had a bunch of things come up - a family reunion, a death in the family etc. so I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. I did what you both suggested. I used a triangle file as Roger suggested and filed the last groove as Brice suggested and SUCCESS!!!, Everything now threads on like I hoped, was really nervous though. Thanks so much for the help!
