Grizzly G0602 Lathe

Q

Que

Guest
Curious if anyone here owns one and their opinion of this model lathe. Also interested in any mods to improve its usefulness.
 
What would you be doing with it?

The spindle bore is too small and the center to center diatance too short for it to be a good gunsmith lathe.

Fitch
 
yeah I know it'll have limitations without question. basically I was wanting to get a decent lathe to play around with and possibly do more along the lines of standard tapered barrel work as opposed to the heavy barrel BR barrels out there. looking at trying to do barrel setback and reream chamber along with some crown work.

really curious if anyone else has used one of these and how they like it.

appreciate any info, thanks
 
Hopefully

you haven't spent your money on it yet. Save a bit more and buy a lathe.
 
With used equipment prices being low right now, spend $1000 on a used Clausing, or similar D1-4 or larger spindle. I bought a smaller lathe to learn on, had it for a couple of months and stepped up to a 12x36. You will have to be patient, but $1000 will buy a lot of machine. You will likely find it well tooled if you start looking. Put a wanted add on the Craigslist in your area, spend 10 minutes in a machine shop, or a commercial tool shop. There are people willing to share their knowledge, just ask.:)
 
There is a place for a lathe like that in any shop. It comes fully tooled. You don't need to do barrels first. I love old lathes. But, messing with old lathes is a hobby in itself. I sold lathes for years. I'm convinced that the reason the bottom fell out of the market for 10" Atlas lathes is because of these lathes right here. We must compare apples to apples. This will do anything a comparably sized Atlas/logan/southbend will do and do it better, it comes fully tooled. Did I mention it comes fully tooled. You can spend alot of time and money trying to tool up an old worn out Atlas and still have nothing. Also, there is a range of work for each size lathe. Anybody who has spent time in a shop which has a full range of sizes in lathes knows you go to the smallest lathe that will do the job. Smaller lathes are easier to manipulate, change tooling, etc. Even if you eventually get a 14" or 16" you would still use this one.
 
I have to agree with papapaul on the Atlas statement - I have an old one out in the shop that's relatively well-equipped. I wanted to use it for easy jobs like boring out recoil lugs while my heavy 13x40 is tied up with a barrel dialed in, but even after I added a Phase II QC toolpost & live center, I still can't do much with it. It's just too flexable to do much more than turn aluminum.

I wound up purchasing another heavy 14x40, and at this point realize I would've been happier with one of Grizzly's 16x40 gunsmithing lathes.
 
Tooling equiped or not, a 330lb 10" bench lathe has very limited usefullness in the real world.
You might get away with doing hobby type stuff in plastic, brass or alum, but I'm afraid trying to work hardened gun steel would be way beyond it's capabilities.
My 'little' lathe is a 10",,,,but it's 1200lbs, not 330
 
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Que said:
looking at trying to do barrel setback and reream chamber along with some crown work.
Click to expand...

You won't be doing on the lathe you asked about. It is the wrong lathe for that, period.

Sorry about that, but we aren't doing you any favors if we don't tell it like we see it.

The G4003 Grizzly, for $2500 bux in the current sale catalog, will do what you want well enough that you won't have to upgrade later if you are doing hobby work. You will have to build a bench for it, but you can do that.

Or you can look for some old iron that has a minimum 1-3/8" spindle hole and/or a bed that is long enough to do 3' between centers, recondition it, or fix it (which you may not have the experience to do), and use that.

But the lathe you asked about is not good for setting back and rechambering barrels, or recrowning rifle barrels. Period.

Fitch
 
Guys it looks like the lathe would do something, wouldn't it? With 1" spindle bore -couldn't you set back and re-chamber thru the headstock some factory style rimfire bbls? Maybe you wouldn't want to set back a .308 but for small sporter bbls, maybe even some .920 rimfire bbls.

Look at it like it's all you can spend. Is there just not enough Horse Power there to turn off some metal? If you buy used and don't have a clue what to look for you could be worse off.

Yep it is kinda small but for a factory type rimfire, what will it not do for setback and rechamber? Hey i know how long i waited for a 12x37 and i came close to not getting one.

If this is all the guy has in his budget should he just pass and don't get a lathe? I bet there are some on here that could take this small fry and beat the crap out of me and my 12x37, lol

Hey if the answer is still don't get it fine, but is there any constructive help? joe:)

g0602.jpg

Standard Equipment:

* 5" 3-jaw chuck with two sets of jaws
* 6-1/2" 4-jaw chuck with reversible jaws
* Steady rest
* Follow rest
* MT#3 dead center
* 4-way tool post
* Face plate
* Tool box & tool kit

Specifications:

* Motor 1 HP, 110V, single-phase
* Swing over bed 9-5/8"
* Swing over cross slide 6-1/8"
* Distance between centers 22"
* Spindle bore 1" Spindle thread 1-3/4" x 8 TPI
* Spindle nose taper MT#4
* Number of speeds 6
* Range of speeds 150, 300, 560, 720, 1200, 2400 RPM
* Lead screw 3/4" - 12 TPI
* Compound travel 3-1/2"
* Cross slide travel 6-1/2"
* Carriage travel 18-1/2"
* Maximum tool size 3/8" x 3/8"
* Tailstock barrel travel 2-1/2"
* Tailstock barrel taper MT#3
* Number of longitudinal feeds 9
* Range of longitudinal feeds 0.0023 - 0.013
* Number of inch threads 33 Range of inch threads 8 - 72 TPI
* Number of metric threads 26
* Range of metric threads 0.25 - 3.5mm
* Overall dimensions 32"W x 50"L x 16-5/8"H
* Approximate shipping weight 440 lbs.
 
jGEE said:
If this is all the guy has in his budget should he just pass and don't get a lathe?
Click to expand...

For what he said he want's to do, this lathe isn't going to work.

If he has $1,000 to spend, he is better off looking for a 9" SB Model A (or even a change gear lathe) with a long bed (48") that has most of the bed wear near the headstock (don't they all?) and a decent set of spindle bearings. The bed wear near the headstock will keep the price down but it won't bother it for chambering and crowning in a steady rest.

Chambering and crowning can be done in the steady rest on that lathe. This is a picture of mine.

SouthBendisstartingtogetorganized-s.jpg


I could do a barrel on mine if I had to - the key is the long bed. I have a 12x36 with a 1-5/8" spindle hole, it works better for chambering and crowning, so I use that.

It will take some patience to find a suitable SB at an affordable price, but it can happen.

There are other lathes out there that will work. Logan, Clausing, and some older belt driven 12x36 imports including JET lathes sometimes sell in that price range as well.

If the original poster was wondering about using it for RC models, model trains, RC Helicopters, or other small scale stuff, it would work just great. But that isn't what he said he wanted to do.

Buying the wrong lathe may make getting the right lathe impossible for all time - I've seen that happen too.

Fitch
 
Mr Fitch you make perfect sense.
I am lost on 1 point though, why wouldn't the little Grizzly chamber a rimfire up to .920 in the head stock. You mentioned spindle brgs, will the small lathe come with a ton of runout and just be unuseable?

At the time i bought my 12x37 i didn't even know about chambering thru the headstock, i was going to use the steady rest method. Telling someone new to cut, thread and chamber in the steady rest is a cruel joke, lol.

For now i don't plan on ever trying that method-. It just looks like the odds of something moving around .001 or so using the steady rest is 100 times more than using the head stock method.
Yes it could be done but your going to have to be "lathe magician" to make it happen, not including some kind of roller brg steady rest. Is there an advantage of chambering in the steady i have missed. Them old tool room SB had 3/4 spindel bores- i kinda figure thats why the steady method was used.

but i think i am drifting from the original topic. Mr fitch you have forgotten more about lathes than i will ever learn- i'm not trying to argue any at all. (i got 1 more question but its for another thread of yours)

thanks joe:)
 
frwillia said:
You won't be doing on the lathe you asked about. It is the wrong lathe for that, period.

Sorry about that, but we aren't doing you any favors if we don't tell it like we see it.
Fitch
Click to expand...

well I'd like to thank you all for the input on here. I have two possibly three restrictions on getting a bigger lathe; size, money and the unwillingness to wait any longer.
I ordered it the other day prior to my initial posting. had hoped to get some intel from folks that own this yet it appears that this isn't a popular lathe for this site. I do understand thats for sure. I had my fingers crossed ya know.
well once it does get here I'll have it to practice with until the day comes that I can afford a larger lathe along with a good place to use it.

thanks again for the replies folks
 
The is another factor which hasn't been mentioned. You need to learn how to operate a lathe before you go on to advanced projects. That little lathe will be good to learn upon. I want one of those for inside the house. All my lathes are out in the shop, and I have to start a rotary phase converter to use any of them. A PIA.
 
papapaul said:
The is another factor which hasn't been mentioned. You need to learn how to operate a lathe before you go on to advanced projects. That little lathe will be good to learn upon.
Click to expand...

excellent point sir. true I am just starting out and like other things in my past I tried them and found that I just didn't care for it. With this I hope not to have a huge investment in it. I do want to play around with it and maybe just maybe find that I enjoy it. I have no intent on trying to build BR rifles, just hope in improve a few of my own factory rifles. I do like the thread jGEE has on here with his lathe and barreling and that in some respect has given me just that last little push to break down and buy this. I knew it'd have limitations but I decided to ask on here and see if there was any owner feedback on it.

thanks again folks. maybe once I get it up and running ya'll will be seeing me post a few questions during my initial learnings.
 
Que said:
well I'd like to thank you all for the input on here. I have two possibly three restrictions on getting a bigger lathe; size, money and the unwillingness to wait any longer.
I ordered it the other day prior to my initial posting.
Click to expand...

Well, all right then. You have a new lathe on the way!

had hoped to get some intel from folks that own this yet it appears that this isn't a popular lathe for this site. I do understand thats for sure. I had my fingers crossed ya know.
Click to expand...

Tell ya wut, you get a .22 rimfire barrel in there, or need to make tooling, or learn skills that would be useful for gunsmithing, come on back here and ask away. We'll do what we can to answer questions and help where we can.

I know nothing about rimfire barrels, but there are folks on here that do.

well once it does get here I'll have it to practice with until the day comes that I can afford a larger lathe along with a good place to use it.

thanks again for the replies folks
Click to expand...

You're welcome.

Fitch
 
That lathe has a #4 Morse taper in the head stock plus 1 inch through the headstock. You could could shove any sporter or varmiter weight factory barrel through the headstock and set it back rechamber thread or whatever. You will probably have to bore out the chuck a little to clear the chamber end of most centerfire barrels. You woud have to make a spyder for the back end of the head stock. I made one on my lathe that replaced the locknut on the back of the spindle. It is a little short between centers. Cutting a crown might be possible on a barrel you could shove through the back. It would be a great lathe to have around for a lot of small jobs and a good one to learn on. You gotta start somewhere. The way I look at it any lathe is better than no lathe. Jon
 
Make and install a muzzle brake on a rifle. That would be a challanging and fun project for a beginner with a small lathe like this. Aluminum will work, make the brake first.
Aluminum or brass powder funnels with tubes that fit the case neck real close are nice to have. Making a funnel will force you to come up with an acceptable sequence of operations.
Look through a Sinclair or Hart catalog and pick out a project. You will spend a bunch of time making some things and find out if you like working with machine tools.
Good luck, have fun but BE SAFE.
 
Got to start some where, I started with an old craftsman (atlas) planetary gear system that drove the chuck. Cost me $50. Had to repair that rimgear drive before anything else but I got it done and learned a lot. Used that little noisey unit for a lot of odds an ends. Next uniT was a big piece of iron, well worn Sebaston 16" (spelling?) 48" or so between centers and a couple years later a 9x36 from the war dept can't remember name something that started with S not SB again well worn need some repair. Had collet system and Taper. Sold both a couple years back and bought new 14x40 import Burminghand YZ1440 ( d1-4 )
Time to chuck my 2 older mills, a Mill Port (belt change for speed) and a Kent (variable cone drive) for something with less issues. (repairing this stuff, way scraping ect is just too many dollars vs new for my use) Any recomendations?
 
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