I own a Grizzly again

[Phil Thien]

Is there anything particularly special about this motor, that a replacement couldn't be supplied by a motor shop? I kind of thought there would be an induction motor with standard frame and a pulley mounted deep inside the thing, I'm surprised it is proprietary.

Edit to add I just went and looked at the parts diagram and sure enough, the mounting brackets look proprietary. OTOH, it seems like it would be possible to weld some angle iron to another motor. I know some guy was selling brackets to weld to motors for mounting on a Unisaw, so it would seem someone might be able to do the same thing with some angle iron to a motor for this guy.

Hopefully the one you've got can be rewound by Grizzly, though, that seems like less of a PITA.

[Stephen Cherry]

Seems like the motor should have lasted longer, but before writing off the machine, I'd pull out the motor and see what it could be replaced with. With a little luck, and a grainger catalog, you may be able to come up with something pretty quickly. In industry, motors go bad all the time, and lots of places will buy backup motors as cheap insurance. Or, just have it rewound, plus new bearings, and it should be good to go.

[Jeff Duncan]

Yeah I'm with Stephen, I'm sure you have a local motor shop that you use so I'd check with them as a rewind may be cheaper, (and certainly quicker in this case), than buying new? I'm not a fan of that companies stuff for the type of use I put on my equipment, but if the rest of the machine has held up, (surprising), then swapping motors is certainly cheaper than many of your other options

OTOH…..if you do spend a little time and give the Whirlwind the attention it needs, it will likely outperform the bear in quality and longevity. Well…..I guess it already has on longevity

good luck,
JeffD

[Keith Outten]

Jeff,

Don't be surprised concerning the longevity of Grizzly machines, they have a pretty good track record. I own two Grizzly machines that are over 25 years old that have an unbelievable number of hours on them. I have two that are 20 years old and another that is 15 years old. I have used these machines without failure for years doing commercial work, none of them owe me a penny if they failed tomorrow.

Its not just me, there is a very long list of people here who have had the same experience with Grizzly machines. Considering the cost of the machines I purchased and the hours of running time I doubt any company could offer a better value. Perfect no but certainly fine machines if you aren't hung up on beautiful paint.

Just My 2cents.
.

[Phil Thien]

I was curious how much having a 10-HP motor rewound may cost, so I did a little googling and found this site:

http://www.themotorspecialist.com/th...t-of-upgrading

I don't know ANYTHING about them, but the price they quote is $625 to $1000 depending on the desired efficiency when they're done (seems like $625 would be close to OEM efficiency).

Not terrible.

Hopefully Grizzly can rewind it for less.

I once had a brochure or catalog from a place that (I think) billed itself as one of the largest rewinders in the world. Their prices for universal motors were pretty unbelievably low. But I can't remember who it was.

[J.R. Rutter]

I could not get an answer from tech support or customer service on what it would cost. The rewinds are done in Springfield, not Bellingham.

[Phil Thien]

Here, I found them, try contacting these guys for some information:

http://eurtonelectric.com/

They may be able to quote a rough estimate for rewinding. And I noticed quite a few motors on their site with similar mounting, buying a new motor and adapting it may be possible.

[Jeff Duncan]

Jeff,

Don't be surprised concerning the longevity of Grizzly machines, they have a pretty good track record. I own two Grizzly machines that are over 25 years old that have an unbelievable number of hours on them. I have two that are 20 years old and another that is 15 years old. I have used these machines without failure for years doing commercial work, none of them owe me a penny if they failed tomorrow.

Its not just me, there is a very long list of people here who have had the same experience with Grizzly machines. Considering the cost of the machines I purchased and the hours of running time I doubt any company could offer a better value. Perfect no but certainly fine machines if you aren't hung up on beautiful paint.

Just My 2cents.
.

Keith, I'm glad you had good experiences with your equipment. I didn't, (nor do I want to now), start a Grizzly bashing here. They have a much better reputation with hobby guys than they do in pro shops, and I know there are a lot of guys out there perfectly happy with them. My own experiences having bought a couple machines from them myself years ago are….well different than yours I'm not going to go into details as I don't want to hijack the thread into something else. Though I'd be more than happy to detail my experiences offline if you desire. I'll just say I get much better value in pursuing other directions for my equipment…..but to each their own

JeffD

[Larry Edgerton]

I have bought a couple of motors from FactoryMation with good results at a fair price.

Larry, with a zero Grizzly tolerance shop.

[Keith Outten]

We are talking about a 3 year old machine right?
.

[Ronald Blue]

Apparently some people think that if you by expensive equipment it will never fail. I can prove them terribly wrong. You can buy what is considered to be the best available and it still breaks and worse then that.....sometimes repair parts are weeks or months away. Not one of these has a single key component that was sourced from Taiwan or China. Some of these components come from ....gasp....Germany or Austria. The only way around this is to either stock components yourself to avoid being down or find another source of repair parts. Sometimes both are required. I am talking about machines that cost several million dollars. I feel as always some want to get the club out and bash the bear but they are living in fantasy world if they think that's the only place this can and does happen.

[Phil Thien]

The only way around this is to either stock components yourself to avoid being down or find another source of repair parts.

I agree w/ this. I know some shops I've been in have entire spare machines from which they swipe parts. Sometimes they buy two brand-new, sometimes they buy a new one and then look for a used one.

[Jeff Duncan]

Actually it's nothing to do with thinking expensive equipment cannot fail. It's that better quality will generally yield better results. If you buy a pair of no name boots from the clearance bin they are probably not going to last as long as say a pair of Red Wing boots. That doesn't mean you couldn't get a bad pair of Red Wings, just that the odds are significantly better that they'll give a good service life.

Same thing with machinery. If your buying from a company, (any company), that thrives off making equipment as cheaply as possible, vs a company that focuses on quality over price, your odds are significantly better with the quality machine.

It's for this reason that I feel comfortable buying a 40 year old German shaper, but would be much less optimistic about a 20 year old shaper whether grizzly, Jet, Reliant, you name it

just my opinion though,
JeffD

[Shiraz Balolia]

Apparently some people think that if you by expensive equipment it will never fail. I can prove them terribly wrong. You can buy what is considered to be the best available and it still breaks and worse then that.....sometimes repair parts are weeks or months away. Not one of these has a single key component that was sourced from Taiwan or China. Some of these components come from ....gasp....Germany or Austria. The only way around this is to either stock components yourself to avoid being down or find another source of repair parts. Sometimes both are required. I am talking about machines that cost several million dollars. I feel as always some want to get the club out and bash the bear but they are living in fantasy world if they think that's the only place this can and does happen.

Thank you!

It is important to remember that we carried this machine for over 10 years and one of the reasons we discontinued it was because users tended to modify it, making it dangerous to the user. In fact the photos shown by the OP shows that our standard guard, oversized for a reason, was discarded and a much smaller guard installed in its place. We do not know what other modifications were made to the machine.

Another thing that comes into the equation is that in 3 years there were probably tens of thousands of cuts made, and if we had motor problems with these machines, we would have a ready supply of replacement motors on hand. Also, if the OP is searching for the best price on re-winding a motor and the shop is at a standstill then why is the seller of a discontinued machine, that was modified by the user, being held responsible for it well outside the warranty. To the OP - try Mac & Mac on Iowa Street for re-winding in town. Our re-winding shop is in PA and there is no guarantee that it will be cheap.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Here's a reality.

Companies discontinue products all the time. If a product isn't profitable or selling a large enough quantity, products get discontinued. Period.

Even with large scale, very expensive medical devices, previous regulations only required a manufacturer to maintain parts available for 7 years after the last production date. So if you bought a 2.2 million dollar (that's $2,200,000) machine, an MR scanner for example, and yours is the last one produced, the regulations only required the major parts to repair this machine be available for 7 more years. You still might have to wait for the part to be manufactured as it may not be in stock or accept a substitute that might require some additional onsite engineering. I don't know what current regulations require.

As a young family man, enlisted man, I re-enlisted in the US Navy in November 1970. I was going to a Navy school in Brunswick, GA at the time. A local Chevy dealer had a used Pontiac Lemans on their lot I wanted to buy but the dealer would not budge one penny on it's price.

Weeks later, I re-enlisted and got a nice lump cash sum for re-enlisting for 6 years. (I was in a critical rating which they were trying to retain.) I walked into the local Pontiac dealership and bought a brand new Pontiac T-37 they had on the lot. 6 cylinder, rubber floor mats, automatic transmission. Keep in mind this was the 1st year they put smog devices (in this case a "sump pump") on cars. Months later I found out this car would not run 75 MPH with 2 adults and 2 kids in the car. A year later just outside the 12 month, 12,000 mile warrantee expired when the alternator failed. Guess what? I had been sent to NAS Meridian, MS and the Pontiac dealer couldn't get a replacement alternator. I traded this in on a 1972 Chevelle, with everything you could get including 8-track player and vinyl top.

What is a T-37? "Are you still wondering what a T-37 is? According to the Pontiac Historical Society, the T-37 was a bare bones Lemans available only for the 1971 model year. The T-37 came standard with GM’s 250ci straight six cylinder engine and a column shifted three speed manual transmission, but it could also have been ordered with any of five V8 powerplants, including the legendary Pontiac 455. When the right option boxes were checked, the T-37 became a GT-37."

It's the only year that car was manufactured, it was discontinued and I could not get an alternator 12 months after I bought it. The dealership couldn't even recommend an alternative.


It is not a crime for a company to discontinue an unprofitable product line and not have current stock in parts. It's done all the time.