New G9729 - Some early issues.

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NP317
Posts: 4551
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: Northern Oregon, USA

Re: New G9729 - Some early issues.

Post by NP317 »

Related to Grizzly business, I just took delivery of my new shop air compressor, and the truck driver offered that he has been delivering MANY Grizzly machines throughout our northern Oregon region, during the past year!! So I guess Grizzly's business is good.
I like hearing that.
And it corresponds to the advertisement I received last week from Grizzly, talking about the expansion of their walk-in store, at their eastern US location.
RussN
16WhiteColly
Posts: 56
Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2020 2:59 pm

Re: New G9729 - Some early issues.

Post by 16WhiteColly »

The Grizzly G9729 machine is Chinese made and with all Chinese made products, they are way less expensive than USA made, but with some tweaking, the machine can be a very good machine for the price. I bought my G9729 in 2004 and have done several adjustments and it has turned out to be a very good machine. I gave a whole lot less for it than what it sells for today. As far as the gib and table problem mentioned above, the Grizzly Tech just told me that when ordering a gib, it is just blank gib stock that must be machined to fit the individual machine. That’s why they sent the OP the table and the gib off another machine, so he did not have the same problem again.
40 year retired machinist.
johnnybar
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2016 4:59 am

Re: New G9729 - Some early issues.

Post by johnnybar »

Diesel Gypsy wrote: Mon Mar 15, 2021 11:42 am The cross slide however is not so simple. It's gib is locked onto the inside of the dovetail, on the carriage side, and the setscrew adjuster/locks are on the cross slide. This means that it is only the end of the setscrew that slides along the gib that holds the cross slide tight. To make matters worse, the gib is not long enough for the cross slide travel for 1 setscrew to do the job so there are 2 but they have to cross over the end of the gib to complete the travel. Kind of like a relay race where one runner carries the baton for the first part of the race and then hands it off to the next runner to carry it further. This may work in a relay race but it certainly puzzles me why they would think it would work on a lathe! Then, their adjustment consists of those 2 setscrews with floppy handles attached and no locking mechanism at all.

Torch made a good system of adjusting/locking setscrews but it is still just sliding the setscrew against the gib. Why would they bother to put a gib in there at all if it is just going to sit there and not slide and put all the wear on the end of the setscrew anyway?

So far the only solution I have thought of is replacing the gib with a longer gib which would be attached to the cross slide side and some more setscrews to hold it.

Has anyone else found a simple way to fix this? I'd sure like to know!
The cross slide lock screws on the right side of the slide are not for adjustment... they are for locking only. There is a tapered gib on the right side that is adjusted with a large head screw that is captured in a notch in the tapered gib. Clockwise pushes the gib in deeper and snugs up the dovetail's clearances. A bigger issue is the cross slide does not travel on the carriage ways but instead on the underside of the cross slide where it meets the flat at the top of the dovetail. My cross slide was 0.010" shy of touching the ways. One has to file or mill the top of the carriage to allow the slide to ride on the ways.
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