Grizzly 4003G Lathe Chatter Problem

Either way it goes I hope it works out best for you.

I will say that when I am looking for a sound or bad bearing I throw on the stethoscope or grab the heat gun. Heat gun will show a bad bearing or any rubbing part and the steth will blow your ear drums when it finds the wobble AHAHAHAHA. Vacuum leaks, metal on metal, loud bearing...... real handy tool
 
Jamespvill said:
I was able to swap out my toolpost and entire carriage with my friends. The problem persists.

Another one of my friends works for a fab shop where they need a roughing machine. I told him about mine and he is pretty sure his boss will buy it. I know him and he's willing to give me more than a fair price for it. So It looks like this bad boy will be going away from my shop and to another home within the next week or so. It's really too bad that I was never able to pinpoint the problem, and I'm certainly not a big fan of giving up on things. But at this point in time I feel beat down by my own machine, And It may win before it goes out my door.

But with this farewell, there is a hello on the way...one that is beautifully blue, and has a larger bore on it. Stay tunes for that!

Since my production has come to somewhat of a standstill, I decided it was time to clean and rearrange my entire shop. This included giving my center island a nice white coat of paint and putting up some more shelves. Oh, and coolidge, if you look real close you can see some of that real special wiring that I'm so fond of in my shop :whistle: That will also be getting ratified in my lathe-limbo.

View attachment 74328

Anywho, The girlfriend is opening her food truck on wednesday, so fancy and delicious food was in order for tonight.

View attachment 74327

I'll post any new updates for the lathe, if there are any to come.
Click to expand...

Well this is disappointing news (about the lathe, not the foo truck.) I had my finger on the buy button for a D4003G and was following this thread with great interest. I want to buy it to use, not as a project and I was very much hoping you would find a solution. Now I am having second thoughts.
Goo luck with whatever you win up with and good luck with your girlfriend's food truck.

John
 
Walsheng said:
Well this is disappointing news (about the lathe, not the foo truck.) I had my finger on the buy button for a D4003G and was following this thread with great interest. I want to buy it to use, not as a project and I was very much hoping you would find a solution. Now I am having second thoughts.
Goo luck with whatever you win up with and good luck with your girlfriend's food truck.

John
Click to expand...


John,

Perhaps my machine was just the luck of the draw, or perhaps my problem stems from my ignorance. Either way, I can't deny that my G4003G served me VERY well almost daily for the entire 1.5 years leading up to this. I know lots of folks on the forum absolutely love their 4003Gs and my friend also has one and had his before I did, he has had no problems this far.

I am upgrading to a Precision Mathews machine for a few reasons. Firstly Matt, the owner, sent advise my way on things to look for when fixing my machine (A Grizzly). To me, that's simply a great guy who is willing to help weather it's his machine or his competition.That says something.

Also, I think Precision Mathews is a quality over quantity situation whereas I believe that Grizzly is more about quantity. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to get quantity to the masses, sometimes we find that not 100% of the machines are up to snuff so there is that luck of the draw thing I mentioned.

At no point in time has Grizzly wronged me, although they have yet to get back to me about the pictures I sent in. Regardless, they do stand by their warranties and the customer service is very friendly and seemingly knowledgable. I've now had one mill and two lathes from them, so obviously all machines aren't bad eggs.

When I upgraded my mill to a PM932 I was originally going to go with Grizzly's "version" but it was out of stock so I looked elsewhere and found PM. I was none too impressed by their website as it certainly doesn't have all the bells, whistles, and eye-candy that Grizzly's does but when I called up I was met with nothing but above-and-beyond customer service.

It became very clear to me that Matt at Precision Mathews has no interest in showy advertising or spending money on frivolous gimmicks, he is focused entirely on getting us the best possible machine for the money and making sure we are satisfied with it.

Thats all untimely why I chose to go the PM route this time around with my lathe. I hope the above doesn't sound like i'm trying to advertise for PM, But I think if you talk to most PM owners, they will agree wholeheartedly. Perhaps thats why it's sometimes hard to get ahold of Matt's machines and why they sell out so quick.

Thanks for the good-luck wishes, I'll make sure and pass them on to the girlfriend!
 
chuckorlando,
I've always heard that a stethoscope is a great tool to have on hand, I've always wanted one of those fancy cable camera thingies with the screen on them too...

Ray C said:
Any chance that food truck drives out to Maryland?

Ray
Click to expand...

That picture is actually a tiny sushi joint that we go to as often as we can manage. They've got a about 80 different things to order from and a fantastic sushi bar.

Unfortunately her food truck is more of a food trailer but because of permitting its needs to be considered "mobile" but it's not really going to be that mobile. Anywho, she worked at a gourmet winery and all-too fancy for my taste (Like $60-100 steaks and your not leaving for under a benji) restaurant since she was 16, three years later and she wants her own thing. It's a small start but luckily my mom owns a nursery that has been wildly successful for our area and the food trailer is smack dab in the center of all that action. She serves everything from kids menu to her take on gourmet foods. I probably shouldn't be advertising her food services on a machinist forum but we are all very excited! :)) Here's the back end of the nursery and her food trailer, I'm not doing much justice to how beautiful the nursery is right now unfortunately, especially with that giant propane tank!
image-4.jpeg

As for the lathe; it's officially out of my shop and setting in the garage. Here's a picture of the last bit of the extraction. I would have taken a few more pictures, but I think everybody gets the idea.
image-3.jpeg

And it's new home for the time-being. I even found the little metal "STOP" tag it came with. It's resting on two Harbor Freight dollies, they are advertised as being rated for a grand, and I was happily surprised when they supported my lathe without a problem.
image-2.jpeg

Anything new and exciting happens, you'll certainly here about it! Don't have much going on except school for the next week or two :thinking:

image-2.jpeg image-3.jpeg image-4.jpeg
 
I buy my stethoscope from harbor freight. They have them with a long thin metal tip for getting into tight spots. One of them things you dont need till you need it
 
This noob has read the thread with great interest. Comments: Nowhere ( I think) was a definitve bearing tensioning technique given, just tighten and feel for excess heat?? If too loose detect wobble?? From automotive taper bearing adjustment I know overtightening can quickly ruin bearings. I will throw out an endplay figure buried in the fading memory bank of .00" to .001." The old school drill was preload while spinning the wheel until drag is detected, back off and then tension for final setting. That play is not easy to measure on an auto wheel, although you will see a dial indicator set up recommended. So there must be a more definitive bearing preload procedure available??

Next, crack detection. Did not see any off load for magnaflux?? Naked eye will not work. Isn't this service still widely available and cheap?

Agree with chuckorlando on the value of the H-Frt electronic stethoscope. I bought one and it is surprisingly good. I am now leery of the Grizz lathe since threading is one feature I wanted. From my limited experience in this forum looks like the rough Chinese castings have lots of stress risers at the edges.:pondering:
 
James,

I have 4003G lathe for 10 years and use occasionally for my hobby. It has served me well.
Sorry that I am too late to respond to this thread - I have just spotted and bookmarked this forum. But like they say: better late than never.

When I've gut my lathe in 2004, I decided to take it apart completely to check it and to learn at the same time. What I have found was not a surprise. The parts machining was good to very good with few exceptions. The assembly quality was a completely different story. The parts were not deburred, were dirty. The biggest problem was in the headstock gearbox.

The gearbox came with oil, but had a lot of metal chips and casting sand inside. The manufacturer used a red paint inside the gearbox to glue the loose sand together, that is instead of properly cleaning the casting. The worst thing was the spindle bearing feed system. It is a very clever design. When machine runs, the oil mist fills the gearbox and some of it condenses on the top cover plate. Then it finds its way into the oil groove, that runs around the top edge of the gearbox just under the cover plate. From that groove there are 2 deep drilled holes to feed each bearing. In my machine the grooves were cast and were full of loose sand. Your guess is as good as mine - both bearings were damaged.

Grizzly customer service was very good 10 years ago - I have received all damaged parts (there was some shipping damage too) quickly and free of charge. You will not get such good service from Matt at PM - I have tried that too. For some reason I decided not to change the spindle bearings, but to try the original ones. I did not regret my choice.

Even so bearing races and rollers developed matte surface finish, the machine works very well now. I do not have any chatter if I do my part. I think the key is in the correct bearing installation. Visenfile correctly mentions the absence of definitve bearing tensioning technique in this thread. I do not pretend to be a specialist, but I have read a few topics on this subject and was able to assemble the spindle to my satisfaction.

The machine tool spindle procedure is very different from automotive taper bearing adjustment. You assemble automotive tapered roller bearings with a slight clearance - they are small and carry heavy load. Lathe spindle bearings are much larger. The spindle is designed with the rigidity in mind. Plus the bearings are assembled with a preload for the same reason, even so you loose some of the bearing life due to this preload. My spindle bearings are preloaded in such a way that 3.2 lb force, applied to the edge of the 6" chuck, barely moves the spindle in a cold condition. Again I do not pretend this is the correct way, but it works for me - I do not have chatter. In addition both bearing races must be parallel to each other

Hopefully this provides a guidance for some of you.

Mike
 
mikey553 said:
James,

I have 4003G lathe for 10 years and use occasionally for my hobby. It has served me well.
Sorry that I am too late to respond to this thread - I have just spotted and bookmarked this forum. But like they say: better late than never.

When I've gut my lathe in 2004, I decided to take it apart completely to check it and to learn at the same time. What I have found was not a surprise. The parts machining was good to very good with few exceptions. The assembly quality was a completely different story. The parts were not deburred, were dirty. The biggest problem was in the headstock gearbox.

The gearbox came with oil, but had a lot of metal chips and casting sand inside. The manufacturer used a red paint inside the gearbox to glue the loose sand together, that is instead of properly cleaning the casting. The worst thing was the spindle bearing feed system. It is a very clever design. When machine runs, the oil mist fills the gearbox and some of it condenses on the top cover plate. Then it finds its way into the oil groove, that runs around the top edge of the gearbox just under the cover plate. From that groove there are 2 deep drilled holes to feed each bearing. In my machine the grooves were cast and were full of loose sand. Your guess is as good as mine - both bearings were damaged.

Grizzly customer service was very good 10 years ago - I have received all damaged parts (there was some shipping damage too) quickly and free of charge. You will not get such good service from Matt at PM - I have tried that too. For some reason I decided not to change the spindle bearings, but to try the original ones. I did not regret my choice.

Even so bearing races and rollers developed matte surface finish, the machine works very well now. I do not have any chatter if I do my part. I think the key is in the correct bearing installation. Visenfile correctly mentions the absence of definitve bearing tensioning technique in this thread. I do not pretend to be a specialist, but I have read a few topics on this subject and was able to assemble the spindle to my satisfaction.

The machine tool spindle procedure is very different from automotive taper bearing adjustment. You assemble automotive tapered roller bearings with a slight clearance - they are small and carry heavy load. Lathe spindle bearings are much larger. The spindle is designed with the rigidity in mind. Plus the bearings are assembled with a preload for the same reason, even so you loose some of the bearing life due to this preload. My spindle bearings are preloaded in such a way that 3.2 lb force, applied to the edge of the 6" chuck, barely moves the spindle in a cold condition. Again I do not pretend this is the correct way, but it works for me - I do not have chatter. In addition both bearing races must be parallel to each other

Hopefully this provides a guidance for some of you.

Mike
Click to expand...
\

all info is welcome by me.
I've had my 30+ days
just about to hook up power:)
 
mikey553 said:
James,

I have 4003G lathe for 10 years and use occasionally for my hobby. It has served me well.
Sorry that I am too late to respond to this thread - I have just spotted and bookmarked this forum. But like they say: better late than never.

Mike
Click to expand...


Hey Mike,

Although I haven't gotten the lathe back to its absolute former glory, I did get it to where It was working well enough to hold a fairly tight tolerance and provide a reasonable finish. One of my buddies has a 4003G too and I used it while mine was taken apart. To my surprise, his lathe was providing finishes equal or worse than the ones I've been complaining about through this entire thread.He said that this was the condition it had been in since day one, He told me I was too picky! :lmao:

Regardless, I ordered some replacement bearings from Grizzly and had my machinist friend install those, he's replaced a lot of precision bearings and knows his stuff. It provides reasonable finishes with all of my tinkering now. I sold the lathe a few days back and showed the buyer the finishes, he was just fine with them.

So although this is a bit of an anticlimactic resolution to the entire thread, I would have to say it is concluded. I do appreciate the help though!

As for the customer service, I've found that thus far I haven't had the need to call in for any replacements or help with PM's machines so there hasn't been an opportunity to see weather he'll send me parts or not. I don't foresee having to test Matts customer service either in the foreseeable future, He has served me very well over my last two purchases.

Thank you everybody for any and all advice and information you provided for me. Although I was not able to fix the lathe to my personal satisfaction, I learned an absolute boat-ton of information along the way!

P.S. If you need someone to completely rip your 4003G apart and put it back together again, I'm your guy! :))
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top