Grizzly G0670 16x40 Taiwan Variable Speed Lathe

I picked up a 5000 lb rated pallet jack today to heave the big lathe around, I stacked a 20% off coupon on top of the already $40 off sale, $207.99 out the door. Also needed it to move that big crate, I smell cosmoline.
 
Bill-

What is in the box? I must have missed the play-by-play announcements of its travel across the Pacific...
 
coolidge said:
Congrats Michael, I look forward to your review and its nice to know mine will be forever newer than yours. ;-)

So that's about 5% off, its nice to know that if my scheming plan to get a 10% off discount code fails I can at least negotiate 5% off. I hear you on the industrial lathes, I keep eyeing the Mori Seiki and its licensed by Mori twin the Hwacheon both about 5,000 lbs. A new Hwacheon costs like $37k though :eek 2: About a year ago my brother found a used Mori for sale in California, it was in like new condition and only $9k someone snatched it up quick.[/QUOTE
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If you have your heart set on a Mori, Tom Greer is the guy to talk to he and his family were the big Mori dealers back in the day in SoCal and his father is the one who arranged for the Hwacheon to be made to Mori specs when Mori quit doing manual machines. Any Mori in near new condition is going to sell in a heartbeat for under 10K. Check out the pristine one owner one Tom has for sale on his site, its over 20K. I thought hard about it, but its just too big for my situation. Tom is a straight shooter and well respected, if you want one, he is the guy.

michael
 
Yes I visit the Greer website frequently, to drool. Hey lets talk VFD's...so is there any reason I could not use a 10hp VFD to power this lathe vs a rotary phase converter? I mean what does the lathe care where the 25 amps of 3 phase power comes from. Set it to 60hz and I don't see why the lathe wouldn't be happy with that. I can get a 10hp VFD for substantially less than a RPC.
 
You could use the VFD to drive the spindle motor only, but if you are planning on using it by connecting it to the main power connection on the lathe and running it that way, it won't work. VFDs don't like to be disconnected from a motor.
 
Thanks Jim, I figured something like that otherwise RPC companies would be out of business by now.
 
coolidge said:
Yes I visit the Greer website frequently, to drool. Hey lets talk VFD's...so is there any reason I could not use a 10hp VFD to power this lathe vs a rotary phase converter? I mean what does the lathe care where the 25 amps of 3 phase power comes from. Set it to 60hz and I don't see why the lathe wouldn't be happy with that. I can get a 10hp VFD for substantially less than a RPC.
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I bought a 10hp Phase craft rotary converter panel with magnetic switch, cost about 200, then I bought a used 10hp 3 phase motor, put new bearings in it. So for 400 bucks I am set except for some overhead wiring from rotary converter to lathe. I was told by numerous folks that I did not want to try powering the lathe with a VFD in front of a VFD drive. They will talk to each other and have issues. The folks that made the G7 inverter told me I could try and run it on single phase but they doubted it was oversized enough to pull off, said I likely would not have full power even if it worked. One guy I talked to who has owned the lathe since they first came out runs his on a 8hp rotary phase converter with no issues, although he says he does not take huge cuts in his use of machine. Why Grizzly pitches a 30 hp rfc for this machine is a mystery. 10 ought to do fine, i will find out in a few weeks.

Regarding the plastic gear on lathe, ya its odd, but Ford and others use plastic gears in the trannies of 3/4 ton pickups so maybe not such a bad thing. Seeing as its only the one gear I suspect its for good reason and not just economy. My guess is it makes engaging the feed gears easier and as mentioned quieter. If it becomes a wear item, I bet Boston gear makes something that would work or shudder we could fire up the dividing head and build our own.

michael
 
darkzero said:
How did you move around the first one?
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I didn't it was too heavy. I was barely able to lift it just a few inches with my tractor to get the pallet out from under it. The pallet is too wide for the engine hoist. This time I'm going to wheel it over under my chain hoist with the pallet jack. The real issue is bolting the old mill I'm returning back to the pallet, it bolts down from under the pallet so I'll need the chain hoist for that job and the pallet jack to wheel it out of my way until the trucking company takes it away.
 
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