Grizzly Laser G0872

[Stan Cook]

I am considering the purchase of a laser for my home away from home. I have owned an Epilog for 14 years and it will continue to be my primary laser and do the bulk of my work. I have a cabin in the mountains about 5 hours away from my residence. I want the second laser for the cabin so I can stay longer than a week at a time without having to return home for work. The primary tasks required of the second laser would be cutting 1/8" and 1/4" acrylic as well as occasionally raster engraving simple black (not grayscale) vector images.

I am not concerned about the second machine taking longer or even significantly longer to run a job. What I do require is that it has the ability to use CorelDraw files. Accuracy and repeatability don't need to be outstanding, but generally within a couple hundredths of an inch. Bed size just needs to be at least 12"x12". Budget is an issue, so a second Epilog is out of the question.

Does anyone have any experience with the Grizzle laser? Or perhaps the Boss 1416? Or any others that would meet my needs?

Thanks

[John Lifer]

I don't think it has a Ruida controller, (they don't put any manual on line for these lasers.) Looks OK, $3000 on sale isn't bad, Round rods for linear movement, not fixed track is a downgrade for me. Not fixed and stable, can bow. They rate at over 700mm/s engraving. Which is good. I think that it is still a crapshoot as bad as ebay laser. In fact, I'd probably buy an Ebay laser before Grizzly....

[Kev Williams]

My 1390 Triumph has what look like 3mm rods semi-imbedded into extruded aluminum rails, cupped (?) bearing wheels roll along them, I've had no problems after 7 years. My old 25w Universal has a V notch in the rail that 'rubber tire' bearings follow, 2 on top of the laser head and a single spring-loaded one on the bottom. 27 years old, not a bearing change since I bought it in 2001, runs virtually every single day still, engraves great!

I like track-rail bearings, but my GCC Explorer that I bought from Gary, it's on its third X rail bearing. Gary had already replaced the original and I had to replace his replacement When I bought a new bearing from the MFR I found out the problem: GREASE. The GCC owner's manual states to grease the bearing with #2 grease. The MFR guy told me there's not enough room for grease, ONLY use light machine oil on the rails, about every 4-6 months. Grease will cause the bearings balls to spit out, mine spit out 3 of 'em across about 6 months. When one bearing goes, others can fall out from the slop created. The new bearing was every tight, and you could hear and feel every bearing ball 'thump' as it moved from the rail to the housing. That was about 3 years ago, and it's now smooth as silk, moves easy and not a speck of slop...

[John Lifer]

My 1390 Triumph has what look like 3mm rods semi-imbedded into extruded aluminum rails, cupped (?) bearing wheels roll along them, I've had no problems after 7 years. My old 25w Universal has a V notch in the rail that 'rubber tire' bearings follow, 2 on top of the laser head and a single spring-loaded one on the bottom. 27 years old, not a bearing change since I bought it in 2001, runs virtually every single day still, engraves great!

I like track-rail bearings, but my GCC Explorer that I bought from Gary, it's on its third X rail bearing. Gary had already replaced the original and I had to replace his replacement When I bought a new bearing from the MFR I found out the problem: GREASE. The GCC owner's manual states to grease the bearing with #2 grease. The MFR guy told me there's not enough room for grease, ONLY use light machine oil on the rails, about every 4-6 months. Grease will cause the bearings balls to spit out, mine spit out 3 of 'em across about 6 months. When one bearing goes, others can fall out from the slop created. The new bearing was every tight, and you could hear and feel every bearing ball 'thump' as it moved from the rail to the housing. That was about 3 years ago, and it's now smooth as silk, moves easy and not a speck of slop...

Yep, Gun Oil. I wipe down my rails when they start looking like they need it, usually once a month or so. Then a bit of gun oil on the top of each rail and run back and forth a couple of times. wipe down what was pushed off and in 3 years now, no issue

[Kev Williams]

--and weirdly enough, I've owned my LS900 since 2004, and I've never touched any rail bearings. Only part of the machine I've ever lubed is the table screws. When I changed out the X stepper awhile back I thought maybe I should oil the rail a bit. But, the laser head has zero slop at all, and slides back & forth as smoothly and effortlessly as a curling stone on polished ice, so I decided to leave well enough alone --it helps that Gravograph did a great job of hiding the rail and bearing within the gantry--