G0698 discontinuance is temporary

[Roger Chandler]

I received an email response from Grizzly tech support on my concerns for continuing support of the G0698 model lathe. According to the email, this discontinuance is temporary, and they will continue to support the lathe with warranty, as well as parts and service in the future.

See tech support response below:

Dear Roger,

Thank you for your email dated February 24, 2011.

I can assure you that we will continue to support this lathe with parts and technical service. It is temporarily discontinued at this time. However, we will back our standard warranty on this machine. If you have any other concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

If we may be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us. You are a valued customer, and we look forward to serving your future woodworking needs.

Sincerely,

Scott
Technical Service
Grizzly Industrial, Inc.
EN #400283

They did not give a reason for the temporary discontinuance. Hope this helps everyone with this model lathe. I frankly believed all the while that Grizzly would indeed stand behind their units, like they do with all their machines.

[Roger Chandler]

The email Scott referenced in his reply was my second one, the first was on 2/19 .......it was worded much better than the first, and I guess I conveyed my concerns a little more succinctly. :D:D;)

[Roger Chandler]

This is speculation on my part, but I think that Grizzly is having the factory re-do the circuit board on the inverters. Toshiba, the circuit board supplier was working with Grizzly on a fix for the very few that had a problem, and they most likely have gotten that all worked out now, and will likely replace all the circuit boards with the new ones, and that will take some time.

Again this is speculation on my part, but I think an educated speculation, and I think Grizzly is being very proactive to get this thing where it is reliable and does no harm to their reputation. As far as I can tell, there have been a little less than a dozen units that has problems, and I also think that the new board will be available as a replacement part for anyone who has a problem in the future with an inverter.

[Jon Nuckles]

Glad to hear that Grizzly is saying the discontinuance is temporary, Roger.

Not that it probably matters, but I doubt that the problems have been limited to less than a dozen of the lathes they shipped. I got two bad headstocks myself before returning the lathe last fall. When I asked the Grizzly rep I worked with whether I was the only one experiencing problems, he said he wasn't allowed to comment, but said the number of people Grizzly had working on the problem should tell me all I needed to know. I have read postings by several other people who have experienced similar problems, and I doubt most woodworkers even visit forums, let alone post here. I didn't register or post anything until someone else posted a very similar experience and asked for feedback. Most significantly, I doubt Grizzly would discontinue the lathe rather than deal with the few that had problems if it were not affecting a significant percentage of the lathes they shipped.

Other than the problems I experienced, I think it is a good lathe and a great value. I'm glad you have had no problems. I just don't think the problems can be as limited in number as you suspect. I only point this out because you are probably the number one source of information online about this lathe, through your postings here and on AAW. I know your postings influenced my decision to buy the G0698!;) With Grizzly being very close-mouthed about the problems, it is doubly important that people looking for information get both sides of the story. I guess mine is the other side. Let me say again what I have said in all of my posts about my bad experience with this lathe: Grizzly's customer service was helpful and responsive, and Grizzly refunded my purchase price and paid for all the shipping involved. I would not hesitate to buy another Grizzly product.

Please forgive me if I have stepped on any toes here.

[Roger Chandler]

Jon,

What you post about woodworkers not posting on forums might be true. I have seen that when something goes bad, a lot of folks get on the forums to see if others have had similar issues, and news spreads pretty fast. From the contacts I have had, both on the forums, and in phone calls [a good number, and in email inquirys] I can say that I know of about 10, maybe 11 that had any issues whatsoever. Now mind you, I did not get that figure from Grizzly........it is my own knowledge of things that have been said by owners. A couple of those were about the original concern of "hunt below 100 rpms" but that is a red herring in my opinion anyway.

I am just glad that Grizzly is not abandoning their customers who purchased the G0698, and if a fix has been made with circuit boards, then I hope that will translate into the parts availability in the future as a standard replacement for the original circuit board. I think that the 2 headstocks you got, were likely in the problem number, and when they realized that they had a situation on their hands, they got to the bottom of it.

Context and perspective are always important. I do not think that the risk of having a G0698 is any greater than the Jet 16/42. Jet had to replace a slew of motors on that unit. I have heard of bearings and a number of switches having to be replaced on the PM3520b's and even some Nova DVR's had some issues, so with the G0698 being new, naturally it has been highlighted, especially since Grizzly lathes in general were considered not the best in former days.

I think that perspective is always good, and hopefully, those who have this unit will get many years of reliable service and support.

[Thom Sturgill]

Just a guess, but considering that two years or so ago, when I joined the forum, Grizzly lathes were almost universally bad-mouthed and this one is a potential winner. They may just be doing what they can to insure that it does not get a bad rep.

[Roger Chandler]

Just a guess, but considering that two years or so ago, when I joined the forum, Grizzly lathes were almost universally bad-mouthed and this one is a potential winner. They may just be doing what they can to insure that it does not get a bad rep.

Thom,

In my mind it is better for them to nip something that is a small issue, and get it corrected and have a good reputation in the long run because they got on top of it and also made sure their customers had good support. I think your comment shows common sense, and I would think that your reasoning would at least figure into any equation on putting units out there.

[dirk martin]

I seriously think me telling Grizzly that they are going to have a law suit on their hands, if these lathes are taking off, running at high speed on their own...had something to do with it.

However, I sure am glad I got one, before they put them on temporary hold. I really love mine. Sure, I've had some problems (on my 3rd inverter, and 2nd tool rest), but I really like turning on the thing. And the value is fantastic. I don't get any hunting under 100rpm, and am very glad of that.

I'm sure they'll figure out the issue, and that this model will become huge in the turning community.
Having worked with top of the line european hardware, I can honestly say I am very impressed with the hardware Grizzly puts out, and I couldn't ask for more, support wise.

[Roger Chandler]

I got this information on the G0698 from a poster on another forum who got his information at the Grizzly store in Washington State:

Greg Moore (http://www.aawforum.org/vbforum/member.php?u=23500) http://www.aawforum.org/vbforum/images/statusicon/user_offline.gif
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Custer, WA.
Posts: 1


http://www.aawforum.org/vbforum/images/icons/icon1.gif
I was in the Grizzly store in Bellingham, Wa. today. Since I only live about 20 miles away, I'm usually in there at least twice a month.

Since reading here, that the lathe had been discontinued (I got mine in Nov.), I asked the two senior sales persons about it.

They hadn't been told about the discontinuing of the lathe, yet. So they did some checking and found that no more orders would be taken until June '11. This due to the number of lathes already ordered and problems getting them from the manufacturer. Once the back orders had been filled and a sufficient number stocked in the warehouses, they would again be selling the G-0698 lathe again.


I hope this helps all those who wondered about the lathe and the continued support. It is simply the availability of the unit from the manufacturer, it seems.