Thank you for sharing. I don't seem to hear much about grizzly on garage journal.
-I've had a Grizzly Bridgeport clone as my main milling machine for coming up on twenty years. It's one of their earlier Taiwanese makes, made by the same people (I'm pretty sure) that Hardinge themselves licensed to make Bridgeport copies, and is, near as I can tell, a bolt-for-bolt clone.
It's never given me a lick of trouble, has needed zero repairs, can hold a thou all day long if I do my job, and has been used very close to
daily since I set it up in early 2003.
And I
started this biz with a Jet mill-drill, and a Griz 9x20 lathe. Worst problem I had with the lathe was one of the plastic pulleys walked on the shaft a bit and ate the little drive belt. Griz sent me a new one, and I ordered two more. Still had the unused two when I sold it.
I'll gladly admit I'm a fan of older American lathes, and prefer them if I have the opportunity, but if I had to start a new shop from scratch, and be back up and running as soon as possible? I'd have no issues at all with getting a set of midrange Grizzlies.
Doc.