second hand G0773 report

My woodturning club, here in northern Arkansas, has a member who lives in Florida.
Oh, well. He likes us and comes for meetings a few times a year.
Not long ago he received one of the new Grizzly G0733 lathes.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Heavy-Duty-Wood-Lathe-18-x-47-/G0733
It is a bigger and badder version of my G0632 with EVS.
It looks like the lawyers have invaded the design department.
He says that every time he turns off the power, as in checking his work, it automatically resets to zero RPM and he must redial back to where he was.
IMHO, that defeats the convenience of the (expensive) EVS.
From now on, when shopping for a new lathe customers should ask if the proposed purchase has this undesirable feature.

Frank, Having worked (in a previous life ) for a manufacturer of electronic variable speed drives my advice would be to contact the manufacturer and see if there is a setting that can be changed to defeat this feature. It may just be the the default setting in the firmware of the device and something he can program out.

That would go back it doesn't even make scene.

I agree with Don. I'm betting it can be programmed out. I even wonder if that is indeed the default setting, or if your friend's lathe has an issue with the controller. My money is on the latter.

Does the speed control knob spin 360º with no stop, or does it only turn so far to the left or right, like a normal volume knob? If the lathe is intended to reset to zero every time, then the I'd assume the speed control would be free turning and not have clockwise and counter-clockwise limits.

Do you know if they mention that behavior in the user manual? I'll be right back...

OK, I checked the user manual for the G0733 and the only thing I noticed that referred to the speed control dial was this step in the Test Run section (page 18):

To test run your lathe:...
4. Set the spindle direction switch to the "O" position and turn the speed control knob all the way counterclockwise.

Click to expand...

So that would indicate to me that the speed control knob is not free-turning by design, so I'm guessing the "reset to zero" behavior on your friend's lathe is an anomoly, not a design feature.

He should talk to Grizz about getting his lathe fixed.

Your points are all good. There is more to the story that now seems pertinent.
He had bad luck with this lathe from git-go. The bed was broken when he unpacked. It was shipped from the factory broken as attested to by the anti-rust gunk was on the break.
It wouldn't run properly at all. He was sent a new electronic box by Griz which he installed. The head weights about 200 pounds. Shipping back would be problematic. So, y'all are probably right, the elec whizzy thingys are probably screwed up. At this point, I don't know if further messing around would void the warranty. He does need to talk to the Grizzly tech guys again. I feel involved because he called me before making the purchase and I told him how happy I have been with all my Grizzly tools, including my G0632 lathe.

I have the precursor to the G0733, the G0698 and it doesn't work that way. The speed control knob is so easy to adjust that sometimes I brush it with my hand when using the on/off switch. I think there is something wrong.

Fred Belknap said:

I have the precursor to the G0733, the G0698 and it doesn't work that way. The speed control knob is so easy to adjust that sometimes I brush it with my hand when using the on/off switch. I think there is something wrong.

Click to expand...

My G0632 is like that. Very sensitive.

Frank Fusco said:

Your points are all good. There is more to the story that now seems pertinent.
He had bad luck with this lathe from git-go...

Click to expand...

Ah, OK. He got a lemon. End of story. I suspect Grizz will still take care of him, but the "speed control reset to zero" issue is indeed a bug, not a feature.