Grizzly G0602?

Well, I still haven't bought a lathe, but keep researching and keep coming back to the 0602..

There are zero decent priced used lathes around my area...
 
I have a G0602 and love it. Although, I have made a bunch of mods to make it a much better machine. I found the rumors to be untrue about "un-chineseing it". Yes, it came with a lot of cosmoline on it and it took some time to clean-up. Filled it with oil and folowed the run-in procedure. Changed the oil a second time and found no sand or shavings in it, at anytime. No problems for several years now.

You can read about all of my mods at this link.

http://www.projectsinmetal.com/forum/general-discussion/diary-of-a-new-g0602/
 
I can't say I know anything about the lathe (s) you have been looking at. I have a Southbend heavy 10, but if I were in the market for a lathe it would need to have a power cross feed. This would be a deal breaker for me. Even an old Southbend 9B, has this option. With the 10L I don't need to change gears, but still need to change belt speeds from time to time. Mine is wired with a VFD.


If you think you would keep it for while then carefully check the standard features. For the most part 22-inches between centers is decent and a 1 inch spindle hole is good to have. This is an area that bigger is always better. One thing that can be a pain is a short throw on the tail shaft. Mine is only 2 inches which I find is a bit short. But I still say that having a power cross feed is an feature that I would key in on.

In the end, the choice is yours. You have gotten some good advice from the guys so good luck.

Paul
 
I looked really hard at the variable speed version of the 602, but needed over a 1" spindle bore (well, it didn't need to be MUCH over 1", but it needed to be slightly larger). If it hadn't been for that, I probably would have pulled the trigger on that or the PM version.

I have had nothing but good things to say about Grizzly's service, nor that of Precision Machine if that helps at all.

Bill
 
I have had my 602 for two years now and I have no complaints about it functionality. I retired a very old and worn old 9" SB that I had for 40+ years and have no regrets. I did all of the latest mods like VFD & tach. It's a great machine for the price but a power cross feed would be an asset. My only complaint was that it had too much sand blasting grit, inside the machine, which required major strip down and cleaning; even the spindle/bearing had to removed and cleaned prior to the first turn on.
 
I have one and have had no issues. When this comes up on many forums, the negatives are never from people who have one. It's always something like "I've heard there are problems..."
I build model engines and try to work to very close tolerances. With the "real", glass scale DRO, I can hit a diameter within half a thou. The other day I was cutting grooves in .0625 brass rod for e-clips. The grooves must be .052 or the e- clip either won't go on or falls out. Each groove was bang on.
That said, there are few issues that I've addressed.
1. Replaced the compound, 2 bolt hold-down plate with a 4-bolt plate. This is a fairly common mod on the G0602 and increases the stiffness of the compound significantly.
2. Installed a VFD as I too hate changing belts and the ability to vary speed while the lathe is running is excellent.
3. Bison 3-jaw chuck.
4. Bison 5C chuck. This is on the lathe 95% of the time.
5. Tailstock DRO
6. Independent carriage feed motor with variable speed.

Why is is that when someone asks a question, someone invariably answers "get a used lathe" or "get American iron". In many respects that's true, but it was not the question asked.
Would I like an HLV-H or a 10EE? You bet! But one of those in "put it in the shop and start making chips" condition at the price of a G0602? Doesn't exist.

The only things about my G0602 that I don't like?
1. Change gears. Hate em. If I had a QC gearbox I'd probably do a lot more single point threading.
2. No power crossfeed.

As much as I like my lathe, I'm looking for a SB Heavy 10 to address these issues. I took a year and looked at more than 50 machines before I found my '69 Bridgeport mill.
The Heavy 10s that I've seen so far are junk. Chipped ways, rust and caked oil and coolant. Bad repairs. I'm not even a little bit interested in restoring a lathe. So I'll keep looking. Until then, my G0602 keeps making chips and that makes me a happy guy.
 
Being the rank beginner that I am, I am sure the G0602 will keep my interest for quite some time.

I have been very tempted to jump to a larger 14x40 or so machine, but will wait until the G0602 is too small. I see no reason to dump $3,000 on something I may well never use. I don't think that will happen, but you never know. I may hate machining items. I doubt it, but still.. I caught myself just today looking at YouTube videos and thinking "If I had a lathe, I could make that.."
 
Hey fellas:
I'm just a beginner/novice, and hobbiest. I know very little about lathes, except that you can usually get a better/bigger lathe for more
$$$$$.
I just sold my Grizzly G0602 lathe that I bought just last month. I bought it last in 2012. There was nothing wrong with the
lathe mechanically. I made a couple of dies and a few small parts for my reloading hobby. The machine was very accurate, for my
tolerances anyway. It ran quiet, had plenty of power, operated very smoothly. There was a fair amount of accessories that came with it.

What I did not like about it:
There was no powder cross feed.
Changing the speeds (via belts) was an inconvenience. They were very tight.
Didn't like changing the gears (only did this once) to cut threads.
It did not have the availability of more speeds (if needed).

I replaced the Grizzly with a Atlas QC 10" x 54. Now you can tell me how bad I screwed up. I bought the lathe at an estate sale for
$800.00. It is mounted on the original cast iron legs.
There was just the basic tooling with the machine. No extra chuck (4 jaw). No center rest.
It looked to not have been used to hard, but needed a tune-up per say. I put 2 new link belts on it. Had to adjust the gears, as there was
noise from some meshing too tight. I really like the QC feature. Plenty of speeds.
I had to grind the jaws, as they were (bell mouthed).
I just finished installing a QC tool holder that I had bought for the Grizzly.
The machine runs appropriately quiet. No weird noises.

What I do not like about it.
It seems to be lighter duty than the Grizzly.
The hole through the head spindle is only .750+.

If I were the original poster "BelllyUpFish", I would get the next size Grizzly that had "at least" the QC gear box.
A powder cross feed would be nice also.
Sorry for rambling. Didn't mean to hijack the thread.
Regards
Jack
 
For what it's worth, I have a PM-1030. This is an excellent little lathe that while slightly more expensive than the Grizzly has certain advantages. The PM lathe has a power crossfeed which is very helpful. The motor is a 750 watt variable speed DC motor which has excellent torque at low speeds. Belt and gear changing is minimal. If you want speeds higher than 1000 rpm you have to change the belt position-95% of the time the lower speed range of 50-1000 rpm is quite sufficient. The gear changes are mostly for metric threading only. The lathe is made in China (like virtually all of this size new lathe) by Weiss who rebadges it for many retailers including in Europe. Parts are therefore easy to obtain. The fit and finish are fair but the lathe holds to pretty good tolerances and working to thousanths is easily accomplished. The spindle bore is 1" and the supplied chucks aren't bad. Putting on a QCTP (AXA) is made much easier by replacing the compound. LMS offers a compound which is a direct swap to allow you to simply install the QCTP without any machining or adaptors. The lathe is available in either a 30" or 22" bed. I ordered the longer bed to get more mass to dampen vibration. I also did not order the stand but instead bolted the lathe to a very heavy wooden bench which helps a great deal with vibration and gets the lathe up higher to a more comfortable place without leaning over (I'm 6'1"). Lastly, Matt at Quality Machine Tools is excellent to work with.
Hope this all helps.
 
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