Several friends have the Grizzly products, and they have been more than satisfied. The thing I like about the Grizzly stuff was when there was a problem (and if you use stuff long enough there will be a problem) Grizzly was there with an answer and help.
Personally CL and an old south Bend or Craftsman and as others have said, hopefully with tooling.
But, if I wanted new and no hassle, it would be a matter of watching for the Grizzly I wanted to go on sale.
Grizzly (and Mr. Balola) are nothing more than overseas container receivers. They offer very little in the way of quality metalworking tools and have prostituted the South Bend Lathe Company name. There aren't any domestic manufacturers left (thanks NAFTA and irresponsible tariffs) but if I was in the market for new machinery, I'd be buying German. Grizzly is scant step above Harbor Freight, a very scant step.
I purchased a chinese combo Mill\Lathe. This unit is sold (different colours) by several companies. It has some unique features in that the table has power in two directions (not at the same time) which was handy for making heatsinks. The other feature I like is the swing over the bed is 8 inches so I can turn large diameter pieces, up to 16 inches.
The problem is my mini Kubota FEL is unable to lift the 600LB mill\lathe. I could not even consider the larger ones with no way to get them into my workshop (heated shed in the back yard)
How do you think I move large machines into place. My loader is capable of 6K but it sure can't reach 40 feet with a 10 foot ceiling......
I use pipe rollers, wedges and long pry bars.
I have a smithy lathe bzg 329 and a bx 288 mill drill, stand alone machines. One of the drill feed handles came out, I didn't have it tightened up enough, anyway when it hit the floor it broke the plastic knob, I called them and they had the knobs on hand. I also had a leak on the sight glass and ask them about that and they answered my question on the phone and I ordered a new sight glass with o ring and they had that also. I didn't necessarily need a new sight glass but no more than they cost I thought I would order one just in case I needed it. They got my order to me within about 3 or 4 days, I thought that was pretty quick. I have called them a few other times to buy tooling and they seemed know their business pretty good. I bought my units used and I know for a fact that they hadn't been used hardly any. I was responsible for the sight glass o ring starting seeping because I can't see the best and my lighting wasn't the best so I overfilled it. After I saw it while the machine was running then I could tell. Now I have the lighting to not make that mistake again unless my eyesight gets worse. I don't know where the smithy machines are made now but mine was not made in China.
A good home machinist turns a new knob from stock...and makes it better than the original. Sight glasses all weep. I let 'em leak. Gives me reason to keep things full of lubricant. Besides, a little oil is good for the metal, especially ways. I keep an oil soaked rag handy at all times, for wiping things off. Dry is alwys bad. My open geared South Bend is always flinging oil from the gear train. My Bridgeport's always flings a spray of oil from the end of the spindle upon startup because the I fill the oil cups every time I use them...with spindle oil.
Every time I use any of my machines and I mean every time, I lubricate them at every lubrication point and apply way oil to the ways if applicable or use the one shot lube pump at the end of each session.
A Bridgeport Machine rep once told me " If you don't wind up with an oil stripe across your shop apron, first thing in the morning, you aren't lubricating your Bridgeport properly. Machine tools thrive on oil. You can not over lubricate. You can however, under lubricate nd most people do.
Why I stated earlier that probably the one problem with buying a used South Bend or Early model Atlas or any machine with a plain bearing (insert) headstock is the previous (owners) probably starved the bearings for oil and it's next to impossible to replace the bearings. They have to be poured in place, line bored and precision honed to a micro inch finish, something that most people can't do and/or don't have the knowledge to do.
Far as your machine not being made in China, I'd wager it was made somewhere where the eating utensils are chopsticks.....:laughing:
