The problem you have is that few post to forums to begin with. In otherwords many interested in machining technology don't use the web or use it infrequently, further fewer post on CNCzone. So it s hard to say how well the product is taking off. I think a grand total of two have commented in these forums that they have purchased the lathes.
Actually that is the first I've heard of origins. Not that it really maters as you can't make an assumption on quality based on county of origin. Many of the low quality complaints about hardware from China is a direct result hardware being built for a price point. Conversely there is a high resistance to paying for quality in some markets.
The vast majority of machinist out there are not really the social and communicative animal that you imagine. It is far more rewarding for many of use to use our shops.However there seems little to no information about these machines out there. I found definitely some threads (three I think ) where people stated that they had bought or ordered the SB 1001 8K. Some send a couple of pictures, but none of them posted his experience so far. There are no "unpacking" videos on youtube, no reviews on Amazon (both are on their web site) which is a kind of strange. It seems that only a handfull of people has an 8K and don't wanna talk about his experience... and there is no evidence that at least one 10K was sold until today.
If you don't own one all you have is the specs to go on. As for touching one I've done that at the Grizzly store, in my estimation it is a higher uality machine compared to say a run of the mill 9x20.There are a bunch of discussions about both machines, the majority only based on the specs. Almost none of the participants had really seen either one of them or even physically touched them. So the information in these threads is only limited helpfull in terms of decision making wether to buy one or not.
This is the classic chicken and the egg problem. In depth reviews require one to have a machine to review.It would be really helpfull, If I could find someone, who really owns one of these machines and is willing to share his experience.
Buy one and post the type if review you want to see! Seriously this is the only way to get the ball rolling.Appreciate any input..
Thanks,
Chris
As to the small lathe it has been on sale for some time now, that tells me sales are terrible considering this is a new product. Why this might be so is unknown. There is a perception that the machine is expensive for its size but thatis highly debatable. The lathe actually comes with some interesting features that are very hard to come buy in a lathe of that size. If it was around ten users ago when I got my 9x20 I might have gone that route instead. This especially in retrospect as the quality of the 9x20 is a bit wanting.
As for Grizzly and its reintroduction of the SouthBend nameplate I think they missed an opportunity here. They really should have focused on a line of CNC machines in these size classes. With today electronic hardware and the deleted mechanics for manual operation, an affordable small CNC would be very doable.