The Home Machinist!

Ordering the Grizzly part may not fit the Busy Bee since Busy Bee change their models less often because of slower stock rotation and tending to go the cheaper route when specifying. A Grizzly machine and a Busy Bee may appear to be the same, except for paint, when you look at them but the Grizzly has probably evolved half a dozen times and had many of the issues corrected. The Grizzly may be closer and need less modification to fit than the feed RSG has now.

Have fun in Labrador.

A good point I hadn't considered Pete, you could well be right. I've never been convinced that Grizzly machines are 100% the same other than color that all the other dealers sell. One would think a high volume seller would naturally get the better castings and maybe better dimensionaly accurate machines as well.

When Busy Bee couldn't even supply the shim or bother to try and order it that was supposed to be in my broach set and wasn't I wasn't pleased. Yes I made one, but shouldn't have to since that's not what I was paying for. Grizzly stands behind what they sell and keeps a lot more parts most times much better than BB does. BB had a "sale" on Dewalt 12" chop saws so I ordered one and needed it right away. Two weeks go by and no saw. Phoned and "it will be a couple of months before the next shipment comes in". I've mostly given up on them.

Owners of Busy Bee and Grizzly are family too but don't seem to get along. It would be a lot better for Busy Bee to have become the distributor for Grizzly up here rather than go their own way. Now that Grizzly will ship to Canada, where just a few years ago wouldn't, it is just going to make it that much harder for Busy Bee. In the Coquitlam area there are a bunch of outfits all selling wood and metalworking tools so Busy Bee is within the 2 Kilometre circle that includes Lee Valley, KMS, Princess Auto, a Home Depot, and a new one called Canadian Woodworker, and they are the smallest of the bunch. That store is going to have a hard time with Grizzly being in Bellingham just to the south. I just wish there were that many outfits here in the province much less the city I live in.

I'm 3-4 hrs from Grizzlys Bellingham location. Without a current passport or enhanced drivers licence I'm about in the same boat as you although Coquitlam is only 3 hrs away. And KMS in Kamloops are a couple of hrs easy drive. Busy Bee despite my complaints is still far better than the House of Tools were. But your 100% right, they should have started being a distributor for Grizzly as that would make more sense. I did know there's a family relationship somehow (brothers maybe?) between Grizzy and BB but didn't know they don't get along. Then there's the Canadian division of KBC and there pricing I'd rather not get started on. But Saskatoon is a long ways from any real tool suppliers so your dealing with the same shipping, border taxes etc that I do.

Quality Cutting Tools have 3 locations in Canada with one here in S'toon. I called them late on a Thursday to order a couple 5C collets and they had them on Monday. They gave me a printed catalogue. It's a good 3" thick.

http://www.qct.tools

Pete
We are getting a little off topic though.

Your 100% about that OT. I'll pm you.

Hello,
I don't know if what follows will be of much use but here goes. I went through my piles of old catalogs and found my 1999 Grizszly Metalworking catalog. On page 8 is a full page description of G1008 mill with a 8" X 30" table. It is a A1S-A type. This is the larger of the two that were related by having almost the same heads but the smaller mill with a 6" X 26" table is not offered in this catalog. The G1008 came with the Power Feed and was $2550.00 + $200.00 shipping any where in the 48 states. The power feed is on the right end of the table and hangs down. It is dark blue or black body with a yellow motor on the bottom. Oddly this Pwr. Feed is not offered as an accessory. Probably in the same vane as Grizzly's policy of not selling spare parts for similar machines sold by others. To name two other vendors that sold the same mill ENCO and JET + others. The same year ENCO catalog shows Model 100-5201 at $2742.99. A power feed is not offered in not offered. At some point these mills, both the 6x26 and the 8X30 were supplied with the horizontal mounted power feed on the left end of the table.
In the 2016 Grizzly catalog they offer the G0731 Mill with power feed which seems to have the same specifications as the G1008. The power feed is a hand down type on the right end of the table which has the same box end as you show in your photos. Grizzly is also offering the G0802 which is the smaller 6" X 26" thinner table with the same type power feed.
Best, Cary Stewart

After reading this thread, I ordered a true Servo brand Y axis power feed. It gets delivered today. We will see how that goes together on my BP clone.

Jim B

The whole point of this is the OP was sold a BP type power feed and his machine does not have a BP style table end so it ain't gona fit without a bunch of work/mods. I've used both the Servo made and a Chinese knock offs and other than the price don't see much difference ,at least home shop wise.

Well I'm back from my fishing trip to Labrador and decided to tackle the power feed. Once I understood what parts were good and what were useless I had a better understanding of how to go about fitting it. In fairness to BusyBee they did design the mill table around the power feed as it does match their unit, just leaves out some parts that you have to machine and has no instructions. This made it a bit hard in the beginning.

Check it out....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBZnhee ... e=youtu.be



Thanks again for the Help,

John, not sure if I need to call you now but I do appreciate the offer. Members like yourself make this board the best out there

Success !! I see the normal BP style end bracket is not used,feed direct mounts to the table. The critical thing in these installations is the fit, ie backlash, of the brass gear on the lead screw to the motor gear. I usually put the feed in gear [control lever engaged] and shim till I can feel backlash while firmly pushing on the brass gear. A little loose is better than too tight. Ain't it fun having to re-engineer something that should be a straight forward installation with crappy instructions to boot?
Later ,say after 1982 era BPs made a change on the knee screw outboard bearing retaining area,so now the power knee kits do not fit !! Even Servo does not show any different kit for the later models. Had a nasty surprise when I went to put my power knee feed on my '84 BP. Had to drill/tap holes in the bearing retainer to fit the feed and modify the extension shaft also. NUTS !

Hey John,

Thanks for the follow up, yes I checked for a bit of backlash in the gears prior to final assembly. I used the shims they supplied. I'd love to have a power assist knee as well but won't bother for awhile judging by the "fun" required to install it....lol