Parts Source For Asian Machines--a Grizzly Problem

modela

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Let's face it, most machinery is manufactured in Asia. The good part about it comes from the lowering of the cost of machinery. The downside is finding parts. A case in point is the power feed on my Bridgeport. In a short period of inattention I ran the power feed up against a stop. Ouch. Obviously it was made in China. I pulled it apart and found a plastic gear in the worm drive missing some teeth.

I went on the web and could not find the manufacturer. I went on ebay, not much luck there either. Finally, I looked on Grizzly's site. One thing you can say about Grizzly is that they do keep parts. I ordered the plastic gear, modified it slightly on my lathe to fit and I was back in business. I turned around and ordered another as a backup.

I have found parts for grinders and other machinery from Grizzly that saved machines. There parts catalogs are good and their staff is helpful.
 
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I have done the same finding parts at Grizzly for other machines.
 
if it's any consolation , the plastic gears are metric modulus and readily available from many sources
 
i had a mini lathe a few years ago, when i was purchasing gears for it, i found hundreds of sellers on a google search for modulus 1.0 gears.
out of ease i chose ebay retailers, a retailer from the Greek isle Cyprus.
i don't recall his name, or if his ebay store still exists .

a more recent google search may prove to be useful to you :grin:
 
just a FYI, modulus to metric is what diametrical pitch is to imperial
 
Maybe this gear from CDCO (cdcotools.com)? Gotta love a design where the gears are the "clutch" in the drive train. I looked hard at the Enco 13 x 40 lathe, my father-in-law has one. I took off the headstock cover to see the quadrant for English/Metric gear changes. Saw a large plastic gear, went another route . . .

Bruce

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A single plastic gear in a geartrain is almost always there to be an inexpensive "fuse" in the event of a crash. It can also reduce harmonics. Fairly common and reasonable practice.
 
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