New to me G0752 lathe... install and mods to come..

TerryH

I have no clue what I'm doing...
H-M Supporter Gold Member
Joined
May 8, 2018
Messages
336
I love my G8688 mini but after living with it for a while I really wanted a bigger lathe. Decided that going up to one of the 10x22ish lathes would be a logical next step. There is a gentleman in my area (1.5 hours away) that buys machines at the Grizzly tent sales and refurbs and resells them. This was actually his personal lathe. He replaced it with a Shop Fox gunsmith lathe. I got the lathe and all the accessories it originally came with for $1200.

Couple of crank straps secured it for the ride home...



I bought a Husky 61" rolling workbench while they were on sale a couple of weeks ago for it's new home. I have quite a few things I'd planning on doing to it. First will be repainting the chip tray but couldn't resist sitting it on the bench just to see how it looked last night.









Next up is to repaint the chip tray and begin the mounting process. I'll be adding a wedge QCTP and doing a few other mods. More to come...
 
Very nice. I have almost the same setup. It's really handy having all of the tooling right there in the drawers. Nice shop as well.
I would be interested to hear what other mods you do.
 
Very nice. I have almost the same setup. It's really handy having all of the tooling right there in the drawers. Nice shop as well.
I would be interested to hear what other mods you do.

Hi John. After seeing how well the little Harbor Freight cart worked out for the mini I knew I wanted something similar for the G0752. HD had these on sale for $598 so I grabbed one. Glad I did. I think it's about the perfect home for the new lathe.

I'll be adding a QCTP, making a plinth to mount the tool post so I can eliminate the compound all together except when it's needed, adding the 6 bolt compound mod for when the compound is needed, making 1/2" plate leveling pads and modding the LMS tail stock cam lock kit to fit this tail stock. I'm sure there will be more but that should keep me busy for a while. :grin:

Edit: Knew I was forgetting something... I've ordered a tail stock DRO also.
 
Last edited:
Just realized that I didn't get a before pic but trust me, the chip tray is quite a bit better with some fresh paint and baked on urethane clear.

 
If you want the exact color , little machine shop tells you what paint to buy that will match the Grizzly green very well.
 
I wanted to add levelers to the bench before I permanently mounted the lathe. I did a lot of research and received a TON of help from @mikey . Thanks to him as always for all his help!

This is the basic idea of the leveling plates...



I made 2 leveling plates from 1/2" steel plate. The plates are 5" long so they are slightly wider than the feet and 2" wide.



There are 5 holes necessary in each plate. 3 are thru holes and 2 are tapped holes for the leveling bolts. I used 1/2x20 grade 8 hardware for this project.

I drilled and tapped the 4 leveling bolt holes and drilled the 6 thru holes on the mill. I also faced the bolt heads to remove the grade markings and provide a flat bearing surface. I also used jam nuts on the bolts.



The feet on this lathe are not exactly conducive to doing this mod. There is an open area in the center with a round cast boss for the hold down bolt. I cut 1/4" steel [plates for each foot, 5x6 for the tail stock end and 5x7 for the head stock end. Those plates wre bolted to the feet with 1/4x28 bolts.



On my application the chip pan is meant to be mounted on the factory stand which has reinforcing plates on the top of each end. This means the chip tray does not sit flat at the through hole. I cut 2 - 6" x 6" aluminum spacers.



I used transfer punches to mark the hols and drilled them in the chip pan, spacers and bench top. The leveling plates were then mounted to the bench.





At this point it's time to set the lathe on the levers.

Here you can see how the leveling bolts contact the plates.





Once the lathe was placed on the bench loosely installed the mounting bolts and began the leveling process. For me the only adjustment needed was to the rear leveling bolts so I locked down the front bolts and moved on with the process of adjusting. I began at the head stock. This is the first time I have ever done this and I was very much amazed at how little adjustment it took to make a huge difference. It is a must to use fine thread bolts for the levelers.

I used 123 blocks on the ways and a Mahr 12" machinist's level for this process.





It only took a few minutes to get the head stock end perfectly level. I did figure out that once I get very close if I very lightly snugged the mounting bolt it helped me to see the very slight movements as I adjusted the lever.



Moved to the tail stock end. Only a couple of minutes to get it perfectly in plane with the head stock.







I also like the added height that the levelers make between the bed and the chip tray. Much more room to clean out the chips.

 
This week's project also included adding the QCTP. I ordered an additional T nut from Grizzly. Cost me $4.00 plus shipping. I needed a few other things so shipping cost was minimal after spreading it over all the items. The stud for the QCTP is M14 x1.5 which is considerably larger than the original so it was a simple matter of drilling and tapping the hole for the new stud.

This pic pretty much tells the story between the original and the QCTP...






I also modified the shelf mounting brackets that came with the Husky bench to work with the new lathe height. I cut them to 6" depth and added a piece of 3/4" plywood with some scrap ATP for the shelf surface. I also cut a piece of 1" aluminum angle and mounted it to the top of the peg board back splash to hold the tool holders.





 
Last edited:
What a day. The carriage, apron and tail stock have been disassembled, thoroughly cleaned, properly lubed and adjusted. My painter was working today so I decided that I'd prep the pieces and take them up to him for a spray and bake. I touched up the thousand chips in the remaining parts and called it good on the paint. Some Scotchbite and a lot of elbow grease did wonders for all the machined surfaces and the chuck. I used the 3M deburring wheel on the cross slide and compound parts.

Cut some ATP for the top of the gear box and belt cover door. Tapped the belt cover block to 1/4 - 20 so I could use a stainless thumb screw I had to secure the door and hold the ATP in place. I bought a Grizzly oval emblem and installed it on the headstock since that spot was just begging for it. lol... I'm well pleased with the results. Now I can actually get on with using it.

This is about as far as I was willing to disassemble it today.





Lot of little stuff that made a big difference like polishing and deburring the bottom plate for the tail stock. Original machining looked like the hacked it out with a grinder.



Sherwin Williams had a chip that was super close so we mixed it and it looks fine. Not a perfect match but close enough for me.

Before and after on some of the touch up..





The sprayed pieces came out nice. No wonder the original paint chips so easy. The carriage and apron had no primer at all. Just paint right over the
castings.

Before..




And prepped and ready to spray.









And back together.














 
Last edited:
I remember when my lathe was that clean ... once. Nice job, Terry!
 
Back
Top