[wheeliecake]

So,

I was planning and really excited about doing a G0704 mill cnc mill conversion. I bought Hoss's plans and have been bugging him with emails asking only those question a newby can, and to his credit he has been answering all of them. To Hoss, a debt of gratitude. So after much debate I ordered my G0704 and excitedly waited for it to arrive. It did, cleaned it, it made some noises when running in, ran a little hot and the usual stuff. Then I started to look closely and the biggest problem that I noticed was that the ways on the z axis and one side of the y were unfinished, in fact they were rougher than some files that I had in my tool box. I contacted Grizzly and they gave me a real runaround, speaking to different people, people not calling me back when they should, making promises and this went on for a few weeks. Finally I got tired, re-packaged the machine and sent it back after being told that as soon as they got the shipping number that they would send me another. The new machine never arrived and after me chasing them again, because i kicked up such a stink, they are giving me a full refund! Ok, but I don't want a refund I want another machine. There answer to that, they have decided to terminate our business arrangement and even if I try and buy another machine they won't sell it to me! I'm really blown away and don't understand how they can do business like this. I'm actually reeling from the whole thing. The worst part is I still want the mill.

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[Mr. G]

umm, that's typical of ALL chinese made machine tools such as this... You need to grind, lap, or scrape the ways to make them worth a damn.

[Titaniumboy]

umm, that's typical of ALL chinese made machine tools such as this... You need to grind, lap, or scrape the ways to make them worth a damn.

I think that is a broad overgeneralization. My G0704 mill didn't have the deficiencies shown in the wheeliecake's pictures.

Wheeliecake: two possibilities. 1) purchase another G0704 through a friend or relative. 2) look into the PM20MV by Precision Matthews, although the table looks a little smaller than the G0704

Titaniumboy

[waltpermenter]

I think that is a broad overgeneralization. My G0704 mill didn't have the deficiencies shown in the wheeliecake's pictures.



Titaniumboy

that's a biased opinion from a troll that used to go by the name loco cnc, a short search shows he's a failed former taig seller.

[Mr. G]

I think that is a broad overgeneralization. My G0704 mill didn't have the deficiencies shown in the wheeliecake's pictures.

Wheeliecake: two possibilities. 1) purchase another G0704 through a friend or relative. 2) look into the PM20MV by Precision Matthews, although the table looks a little smaller than the G0704

Titaniumboy

Maybe, have any pictures of the way surfaces on your machine? I have never seen one that did not have tool marks like that, the one looked pretty extreme and may have been beyond help, but some of the other surfaces could be lapped out.

[joeybagadonuts]

umm, that's typical of ALL chinese made machine tools such as this... You need to grind, lap, or scrape the ways to make them worth a damn.

Where are you getting your skewed information from? There are thousands of pictures of Chinese machines posted here on the CNCZone and ninety nine percent of them have casting that are finished pretty damn good.
Substituting a jelly roll for a crack pipe may correct bad vision,

JoeyB

[diyengineer]

Joey you still making donuts? Jellllyyy num num num. Make any Vegan ones?

[joeybagadonuts]

Joey you still making donuts? Jellllyyy num num num. Make any Vegan ones?

Diyengineer,

Been making doughnuts for several generations and never baked a doughnut (Vegan) but we aim to please.
Maybe you would like a few cupcakes. Mr G might want a fruitcake.

JoeyB

[diyengineer]

Visit Seattle or Portland. They have a ton of vegan doughnuts, soo good!!!!! haha

Diyengineer,

Been making doughnuts for several generations and never baked a doughnut (Vegan) but we aim to please.
Maybe you would like a few cupcakes. Mr G might want a fruitcake.

JoeyB

[H500]

I would expect to see that sort of finish on cosmetic, non-mating surfaces only. But the machine is very low cost, so you can't expect perfection out of the box. You probably cost Grizzly the profits of 10 machines by sending it back, so it understandable that they would not want to risk it a second time.

Assuming that it is typical of the G0704, the ways on my SX3 has a much better finished, but it has inferior gibs which must be worked. Compromise is inevitable.

[DRock]

I would expect to see that sort of finish on cosmetic, non-mating surfaces only. But the machine is very low cost, so you can't expect perfection out of the box. You probably cost Grizzly the profits of 10 machines by sending it back, so it understandable that they would not want to risk it a second time. Assuming that it is typical of the G0704, the ways on my SX3 has a much better finished, but it has inferior gibs which must be worked. Compromise is inevitable.

Risk what? Grizzly has nothing to risk, they sent out a bad machine and now someone else is going to get stuck with it. I guess the only thing they have to risk is sending the mill to someone who knows what to look for in terms of defects.

You are basically saying that the OP is at fault for this situation...which is not the case at all.

That mill is defective from the factory and its Grizzly's own damn fault for letting their QA guy/machine operator sleep/drink on the job.

The fact they don't stand behind their product concerns me...not sure I am going to take the chance on a $3000 lathe after reading this.

[hoss2006]

I do, this pic shows the smooth surface of the z gibs that was typical of all the mating surfaces on my mill straight out of the box.
Ron you got a bad deal as I said in the email. Someone was asleep at the factory.
As I suggested give Matt a call at Precision Mathews about the pm25mv.
Hoss

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[wheeliecake]

I do, this pic shows the smooth surface of the z gibs that was typical of all the mating surfaces on my mill straight out of the box.
Ron you got a bad deal as I said in the email. Someone was asleep at the factory.
As I suggested give Matt a call at Precision Mathews about the pm25mv.
Hoss

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Thanks Hoss I will, I'm just waiting on getting my refund, they said 3 days as I paid via paypal so we shall see.

[underthetire]

Grizzly stood behind my dads 3000 lathe without a problem. 3 spindle motors to get a good one, but now it runs nice.

[Mr. G]

Drock hit it. It is a risk thing. Some stuff is OK (never great) and some is absolute junk. Grizzly is one of the big boys. I have a G3103 that I really like, but I went to the Grizzly store in PA and saw one in person on their showroom floor. I feel that it was one of the better products available from them, but it took a lot of work on my part to get it working to my standards. I had an X2 that took an extraordinary amount of work to even get functioning. If you are going to buy one of these chinese made machines, you have to accept that you may get an OK one, or you may get a crappy one, no one vendor of any of them has shown to get machines to customers that are consistent.

[109jb]

wheeliecake - The machining marks you show in your pictures does look a nit rough, but it is hard to tell from a picture. My G0704 has machining marks on the ways of all 3 axes. On my machine the machining marks can be felt by running a fingernail across the surface. I do not feel that the machining marks on my machine are a detriment to operation and actually feel that they are probably a benefit in that they trap way oil similar to how a scraped surface does thereby aiding in lubrication. On my machine I performed a light lapping of the ways on all axes and and they all operate very smoothly with no slop and no rough operation. Like I said, the pictures you posted look like your surfaces are a bit more coarse than mine, but I just wanted to share my experience.

As for your experience with Grizzly, it is surprising to me. I own the G0704, a G4000 lathe, a couple Grizzly woodworking machines, and my father owns an entire shop full of Grizzly woodworking tools including cabinet saws, large planers, sanders, shapers, etc. We have always had great service from Grizzly.

[wheeliecake]

wheeliecake - The machining marks you show in your pictures does look a nit rough, but it is hard to tell from a picture. My G0704 has machining marks on the ways of all 3 axes. On my machine the machining marks can be felt by running a fingernail across the surface. I do not feel that the machining marks on my machine are a detriment to operation and actually feel that they are probably a benefit in that they trap way oil similar to how a scraped surface does thereby aiding in lubrication. On my machine I performed a light lapping of the ways on all axes and and they all operate very smoothly with no slop and no rough operation. Like I said, the pictures you posted look like your surfaces are a bit more coarse than mine, but I just wanted to share my experience.

As for your experience with Grizzly, it is surprising to me. I own the G0704, a G4000 lathe, a couple Grizzly woodworking machines, and my father owns an entire shop full of Grizzly woodworking tools including cabinet saws, large planers, sanders, shapers, etc. We have always had great service from Grizzly.

There reaction did surprise me and in fact they are the ones loosing out. I got the mill because I had a range of projects that I wanted to get moving on but I was (still am) in the market for a lathe and a couple of other pieces as well. Their reaction seems very shortsighted in my eyes. I actually had my wife talk to them because I'm not a 'phone guy' and given that she works in sales she is better at handling this stuff but after numerous phone calls and NO callbacks (they did phone me once but of course my Blackberry dropped the call) even she got exasperated, and told them so.

[bjones]

There reaction did surprise me and in fact they are the ones loosing out. I got the mill because I had a range of projects that I wanted to get moving on but I was (still am) in the market for a lathe and a couple of other pieces as well. Their reaction seems very shortsighted in my eyes. I actually had my wife talk to them because I'm not a 'phone guy' and given that she works in sales she is better at handling this stuff but after numerous phone calls and NO callbacks (they did phone me once but of course my Blackberry dropped the call) even she got exasperated, and told them so.

sounds like maybe your wife cussed them out? would make sense then that they terminated your relationship. did they pay for all the shipping costs to return the mill? bet you could go into one of the showrooms or tent sales, pay cash and they'd be none the wiser. if your heart is set on the same mill that is.
bill

[H500]

There reaction did surprise me and in fact they are the ones loosing out. I got the mill because I had a range of projects that I wanted to get moving on but I was (still am) in the market for a lathe and a couple of other pieces as well. Their reaction seems very shortsighted in my eyes. I actually had my wife talk to them because I'm not a 'phone guy' and given that she works in sales she is better at handling this stuff but after numerous phone calls and NO callbacks (they did phone me once but of course my Blackberry dropped the call) even she got exasperated, and told them so.

My guess is that your interaction with their customer service people bordered on being abusive. I'm not saying you were wrong to be frustrated, but in the same way that you would not tolerate an abusive boss, they decided not to neither. Perhaps you can have a friend order it for you.

[arizonavideo]

The ways on the G704 should be ground. They are fairly good quality. Yours was a mistake.

LatheMasters did carry the LM-25 that is the exact same mill as the 704 but he orrders them with some treatment to the ways. Felt by hand the are nice and smooth. The picture makes them look ruff but they are not.

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I had both machincs and they are the exact same castings but trimed out slightly different.

Grizzly will treat you like a number but the do fix the problem most the time.