>>What are you G0704 users using for a vise?
>>What types of end mill holders or collets do you recommend?
I got my G0704 in January, and love it.
Vise: I bought the Grizzly G7156 4" vise with the rotary base. Unless I need the rotary base, I use it without the base to make the setup more rigid and to eliminate the base height. But I actually needed the rotary base the other day and was glad I had it.
End mill holders: R8 collets are very difficult to use successfully as end mill holders. You just can't get enough torque on the draw bar to get the collet sufficiently tight. I don't know the spec for an R8 collet, but the nut torque spec on an ER32 collet nut is 100 ft lbs. You aren't going to get there with a tommy bar and a 10mm wrench. I use the end mill holders with the set screws and they have worked very well. I'm about to an an ER40 collet set to the collection and then I'll see how that works.
Plastic gear: I agree with the guy who said "get a spare". That gear died within a couple of hours of initial use. When I got in to look at what happened, it was clear that the motor was positioned incorrectly from the factory and the gear was not full engaged, stripping off all the teeth tips. I cleaned it up as well as I could and repositioned the motor and was able to keep using the machine until the warranty replacement gear arrived, which took six weeks (!). Apparently Grizzly is chronically out of stock on this gear. I ordered two more to have on hand a month ago and won't get them until some time in April.
Digital readouts: I added x, y and z digital scales. I have found I really didn't need the z-axis scale on the head, as the quill has a readout that has met my needs.
Tramming aid: I did that mod, and found it very simple to do and very useful.
I know you will have a lot of fun with this machine - I sure have.
bix