More G0766's On The Way!

[Matt Schrum]

Thanks Mark. I already have the return in swing and should have the bill of lading probably Tuesday based on my last return. I will secure the crate to the bottom, and that's it, they get it back in the same way I got it. .

I don't blame you, that sounds like a mess. That's pretty irksome that they said they'd give it a once over at the factory before it was shipped to you and they definitely did not. What a pain.

[Roger Chandler]

...I had been considering this as the lathe to get later in the year but it seems Grizzly sometimes has these problems of not getting things right. Now I am just not sure what I will buy in the fall.

Izzy, your statement points to my reply to Hu's post above "Good for Grizzly's bottom line.........I am not sure, as this might affect the number of purchasers in the future.......we shall see."

While I have no personal interest in what lathe you purchase, nor any in Grizzly, just a customer........I would encourage you to take the experience of all the owners into consideration as well as the value.

You may find that a different make with a longer warranty is the best course of action for you. Not everyone likes to tweak things, but want a purchase, whether automobile or woodworking machine to be all they ever wanted, but most find out that with a lathe, they end up acquiring accessories anyway, because each of us realizes that no lathe comes with all the things we find we eventually need.

I would encourage you to not write off what might be a great match for you because of 1 persons disappointing experience. To my knowledge so far, with the exception of the tool rest,[which Grizzly says is fine and within specs] and the banjo being the same one from their 18" swing unit, most all of the posters who have the 0766 give it high marks.

I guess it could be likened to a car that came with lower end tires, versus a premium tires like Michelin's. In some sense, we get what we pay for and if we want Michelin's we probably ought to purchase a Robust or Oneway, but the 0766 unit I got rolls pretty sweet! I liken it to Goodyear's!

Your preferences and perspective might be totally different!

[James Conrad]

Wow! I am so sorry to hear this for you James.........I do not blame you one bit.......had this occurred to me, I would be done also!

I am not sure what you are referring to as "motor whine" ......mine has gotten quieter as I have used it, and it was never an unacceptable noise, and was comparable to the Powermatics and Jets I have used over the last few years. I think some of that is normal and that perhaps there is some adjustment the inverter makes as it operates over time adjusting to electronic input from the motor and even the actual power coming into the lathe........call it a settling in, or whatever, but I wonder about your assessment of these, unless you have specific expertise in this area of motors/inverters.

The motor whine was quieter, but still very much there and at a level that is unacceptable. I was over at a club members shop not too long ago who has a PM and there was no sounds like this coming from it. No, I am no expert in these things, but my father who pioneered HP's ultrasound technology and is now a sought after consultant in medical electronics, including writing standards for the FDA in this field is my authority on all things electronic, I'll go with his expertise here.

[hu lowery]

I tried very hard to talk myself into this machine. I talked myself into accepting all of the dings and shipping damage from poor packaging. Then just running the machine a few minutes with the faceplate only had what appeared to be oil leaking out by the front of the spindle. Crawling underneath, more oil seemed to be leaking from somewhere unknown inside the spindle and running out the hole in the center of the spindle housing where it mounts to the bed. Didn't think the headstock had any oil in it. Neither did the person at Grizzly I talked to which led to a sharp exchange for a minute or two. He wanted photographs, I sent them. Even before the photographs we agreed that the machine needed to go back though. Four days of very hard work getting the old lathe out, the new lathe in, the new lathe out, the old lathe in. Not something I did lightly.

I may have to wait six months to buy the 3520 plus the two thousand dollar saving could have been used in a lot of other places. Too many questions that end users don't have answers to though. I'll keep on looking at the 766. If Grizzly goes to a full length banjo and talks Burt into packaging them, then I'll buy one if I haven't already purchased something else. The packaging is whatever the customer, Grizzly in this case, demands. Powermatic and Jet get nicely packaged units from Burt, why not Grizzly? I doubt any of us care about the few dollars per unit better packaging or a different banjo and toolrest would cost. Package the unit to survive the trip and go to a four inch longer banjo and I'll happily pay another $200 for the unit.

Hu

[James Conrad]

Wow Hu, wasn't aware of your issues with the lathe. Is that what you are going with now, the PM?

All Grizzly had to do was deliver on their promise to me: open the crate, check the machine out and put it on my door step in one piece. They failed.

[Roger Chandler]

The motor whine was quieter, but still very much there and at a level that is unacceptable. I was over at a club members shop not too long ago who has a PM and there was no sounds like this coming from it. No, I am no expert in these things, but my father who pioneered HP's ultrasound technology and is now a sought after consultant in medical electronics, including writing standards for the FDA in this field is my authority on all things electronic, I'll go with his expertise here.

Just to followup on this "motor whine" thing.........of the 9 different 3520b lathes I have turned on, 2 of them were considerably more noisy than my G0733....one of them actually made me do a double take, as I was to do a finial demo on it, and I looked to see if everything was okay!....most were about the same, and one I turned on, was whisper quiet. It belongs to local psychiatrist who is a member of our club.........I believe it was one of the first 3520b units that came out before they moved the manufacturing over to Taiwan.

I am not sure why those were the way they were.......I do know that the 3520b Powermatics use the S-1 Delta inverter, and the G0766 uses a Delta M series vectorless micro inverter, which is supposed to be an upgrade from all things I have read. That change in inverters may have to do with some of the "whine" we hear, vs. the 3520b units, and may very well be normal. I also know that the 3520b units are 2 hp motors, unless specially ordered with a 3 hp option, and the 0766 has a 3 hp, 3 phase motor, which again may contribute to the perception of whine........

I know that my unit runs very smooth and with very little of the whine, as it has broken in with the 4 projects I have done to date. The biggest noise I hear is the fan on the motor, and believe me, since this motor whine has been spoken to, I have paid a lot of attention to it. I still think it is normal.

Long term performance will give the true story on this unit. I wish the issues with loose parts in the crates would have been addressed and inspections were better.......those things are preventable in my mind.

[daryl moses]

Every lathe that I have seen [or heard] that uses a VFD has a "whine". It's normal!! My G0733 makes a "high frequency noise" call it a whine or whatever. I knew when I purchased it that this "noise" was normal so I don't pay any attention to it.

[Dok Yager]

Wow James and Hu, sorry to hear about all your troubles with this lathe! I hope you both get something else that does Not have any issues.

AS for myself as I previously stated this lathe has nothing to complain about performance wise. Just a few minor issues that surely if enough folks complain and post enough bad press on grizzly`s site and other media they will pay attention and fix these issues! IF and at this point it`s a Big if, Grizzly fixes the tool rest and banjo issues as well as poor crating I think they have a 1st class lathe on their hands. JMHO.

[James Conrad]

Yes, yes, yes, some level of whine is expected with this type of motor/VFD setup, but not one that drowns out the fan noise or as high pitched as a dog whistle. Both of mine were unacceptable, YOURS, may be fine, MINE, we're not. Not to mention the bearing rattle in the first motor.

Yes, we all knew that there would be small tweaks that would need to be made. However, providing a banjo and tool rest that does not meet the turning needs of the user and specs of the machine is outside the "small tweaks." Cadillac or Hyundai both will get you from point A to B, but not if you spec it as 22" of swing and it only is intended for 17", or put another way, advertise a 5 speed trani and you get a 3. I doubt anyone expected to weave straw into gold here, I certainly didn't, just for them to deliver what they promote. Church it up however you want, there is no denying there are issues with the product, ones we knew about and those we/you have just begun to discover.

[david privett]

my g0766 machine developed a bearing noise after about 10 hrs. of running, called griz. they sent two new bearings reassembled and all is well . I already had gotten from woodcraft a modular system tool rest which I had to modify the post by 2.5 inches making it longer and hoggin the tool rest out a few thousanths. But for what I got in this lathe these little problems which I knew existed in engineering does not keep it from being a great buy compared to a 8500 dollar machine that I could not justify.

[Mark Greenbaum]

my g0766 machine developed a bearing noise after about 10 hrs. of running, called griz. they sent two new bearings reassembled and all is well . I already had gotten from woodcraft a modular system tool rest which I had to modify the post by 2.5 inches making it longer and hoggin the tool rest out a few thousanths. But for what I got in this lathe these little problems which I knew existed in engineering does not keep it from being a great buy compared to a 8500 dollar machine that I could not justify.

Which tool rest system did you get? I'd be very interested to know, because I may be in the market to upgrade soon.

[hu lowery]

Yes, yes, yes, some level of whine is expected with this type of motor/VFD setup, but not one that drowns out the fan noise or as high pitched as a dog whistle. Both of mine were unacceptable, YOURS, may be fine, MINE, we're not. Not to mention the bearing rattle in the first motor.

Yes, we all knew that there would be small tweaks that would need to be made. However, providing a banjo and tool rest that does not meet the turning needs of the user and specs of the machine is outside the "small tweaks." Cadillac or Hyundai both will get you from point A to B, but not if you spec it as 22" of swing and it only is intended for 17", or put another way, advertise a 5 speed trani and you get a 3. I doubt anyone expected to weave straw into gold here, I certainly didn't, just for them to deliver what they promote. Church it up however you want, there is no denying there are issues with the product, ones we knew about and those we/you have just begun to discover.

My high frequency hearing is shot to hell but my lathe seemed eerily quiet below 700. Slight whine from there up, increasing with speed as expected. Never got past break-in so probably some belt noise but regardless of where from, absolutely no noise complaints. Just a crapshoot if you get a quiet one or not I guess.

I have to agree, not what was advertised. I didn't want to get into that can of worms with Grizzly, I just wanted out from under being stuck $1700. I had enough else wrong with my machine to warrant sending it back. I had a similar deal with Ford Motor Company over a radiator that comes with the tow package Roger talks about and I ordered with my new truck. As well as towing, I do some occasional mountain driving, another need for the big radiator. My SuperCrew came with the small radiator. Turned out that all SuperCrews came with the small radiator regardless of ordering the tow package or not.

I raised more hell than a pig stuck under a fence and eventually a representative of Ford met with me and the dealer's service manager. This guy was the customer service person that interacted between the dealer and Ford, not my customer service rep as the name seemed to imply. He told me flat out they could do what they wanted because they were big enough to get away with it! The service manager pointed out that the source book clearly stated that the larger radiator was part of the tow package. Didn't matter the small radiator was adequate. I pointed out that the standard motor and rear end were adequate too but I had paid for and received upgrades. "Tough patootie, you get what we give you" or words to that effect.

The dealer realized I was getting a raw deal and with the specified radiator not being available at the moment put a still larger radiator in. About a year later Ford offered the choice between the proper radiator, a hundred dollar check, or a deep discount on a new truck. They enclosed the check, were pushing it hard! I framed it and hung it on the wall. Turned out Ford wasn't as big as they thought. If enough people raise hell I suspect Grizzly may find out the same thing. I need to turn wood though, not spend the kind of time I spent fighting Ford again.

Edit: James, I am planning on the PM 3520 now. Gonna take awhile to free up the additional coin so plans can change but the 3520 is a pretty major step up from the 766 justifying some of the money. I would still jump on the 766 if they decided to change the banjo and correct packaging issues before then. I believe at least half the price difference is going through dealers instead of just the importer which is what Grizzly is.

Hu

[david privett]

ok from wood craft the 5 inch post which I lengthened by 2.5 inches (could go 3) # is 123583 a large bowl rest is 140457 and a 6 inch tool rest is 123581 there is more stuff for it also . But that will get you started.

[Klaus Waldeck]

It turns!

DSC_0237.jpg

I was stubborn and did all of the work of setting it up myself. It took some time, and it is very heavy, but I did it. Now I need some turning tools. I was going to try to make a carbide tool. There are plenty of instructions on how to do those.

[Roger Chandler]

It turns!

DSC_0237.jpg

I was stubborn and did all of the work of setting it up myself. It took some time, and it is very heavy, but I did it. Now I need some turning tools. I was going to try to make a carbide tool. There are plenty of instructions on how to do those.

Not that it matters, Klaus, but it seems you have the bed turned with the labels to the wall......I think the right way is to have the labels and face of the headstock on the same side, but as I said, it really does not matter! Glad to see you got it set up!