Tent Sale: How many Grizzlies have you wrestled?

[davidtu]

Turns out that right in my backyard Grizzly is having a tent sale on May 13th. Well about 1.5 hours away, anyway, in Bellingham WA. If you live nearby sounds like there may be some very good deals on scratch & dent items.

There also tent sales in Springfield, MO (home of the Simpsons) & Muncy, PA, later this summer & fall.

http://www.grizzly.com/tentsale/tentsales.aspx

Has anyone been to one of these?

If I end up going I won't have time to research all of their tools ahead of time. So to help narrow down what to look at, are there certain tools that Grizzly are known for as particularly good or bad?

[Knottscott]

I've been to a couple. The early crowds are amazing and it's a tough environment to make an intelligent decision on machinery. However...the crowds thin out early, and there's alot of neat stuff there. If you go with the intent of having fun, you definitely will.....maybe you'll get a deal, maybe you won't....just view it as a plus if you do.

[Tim Clark]

You lucky dawg!

It depends on what you're looking for.

Although they do have lower end stuff, if it says Grizzly on it, chances are good you have a quality machine.

I'm waiting for funds to be available to pull the trigger on a G1023SLX. Sadly. I live too far away to catch a tent sale.

Enjoy the day.

[scorrpio]

Um, any idea why would they do tent sales there? I mean, they have full-fledged stores at these locations...

[Pappy]

From what I have heard/read, the tent sales are mostly 'scratch and dent' items or clearance on overstock/discontinued models. Still could be some good deals to be had.

[scorrpio]

Ah, I guess they put up a bunch of tents in front of the main store, and everything in tents is on sale. I am actually going to be like 20 min from PA location this weekend, but it'll be a family camping trip, and the car will be loaded. Oh, the frustration!!!

[Catmandu]

Grizzly is not made in America so in shipping from there Asian plants to the states sh.. happens. The warehouses periodically have accidents and you get "scratch and dent" items. The owner used to have a section in the showroom for damaged items but he found it more lucrative to hold the yearly sales where hype and excitement sell. The discounts are good not great.

Be careful when buying a Grizzly, or other Asian tool, understand that just like wood metal must cure otherwise its considered green. Most of the asian manufacturing plants, which by the way will make one (1) machine that carries 4 or 5 different labels, are under such time constraints that the standard 1 year cure does't happen. This creates castings that warp or crack. ERGO "scratch and dent". Powercraft and Delta allow curing but you pay a price for the time. In conclusion be careful take a straight edge with you and don't buy on emotion use wisdom.

just my $.02 worth

CMD

[Tequila]

Be careful when buying a Grizzly, or other Asian tool, understand that just like wood metal must cure otherwise its considered green.

I'm not sure what you mean by this, but I've never heard metal described as "green". There's a lot of things that happen to metal when it gets used (hysteresis, work hardening, etc), but a piece of metal won't "cure" simply by sitting around.

[mschrank]

Quick off topic....

There also tent sales in Springfield, MO (home of the Simpsons)

What are ya doin' here...baiting us? There are at least 20 states with a "Springfield," but I know that the Simpsons actually live in Springfield, Oregon!

[Cain]

Thanks for the info. I may try to make it to the one in Springfield on July 15.

I thought there is a Springfield in every state in the lower 48.

[91FE]

Slightly OT:

I had to fly into Springfield, MO on business... long story...short trip. Any-who... There are only two kinds of advertisements in the Springfield airport. 1. Bass Pro Shop 2. Grizzly store. I went to both and was blown-away twice that day. You guys in Springfield are too lucky!

[Knottscott]

One other bit of important info...the last I knew, all these scratch n dent items are sold as is.

[Catmandu]

I'm not sure what you mean by this, but I've never heard metal described as "green". There's a lot of things that happen to metal when it gets used (hysteresis, work hardening, etc), but a piece of metal won't "cure" simply by sitting around.

Sorry Tequila but you may need to visit a local foundry and have them explain cast iron and curing times. If you take tours of Delta or Powermatic you can also learn about "green" iron, Powermatic requires 13-14 months of curing then they ship the casting to the machining dept. Caterpillar which I'm familiar with will require similar times.

I'm not asking you to believe me, I'm just telling you the facts!

CMD

[Tequila]

Catmandu, I used to work in the foundry industry. Mostly cast iron, aluminum, and copper alloys, plus some precious metals and exotics like beryllium aluminum.

I've heard cure time related to molds, refractory, and metal as it's cooling, plus in terms of working the material through annealing, hardening, etc. But never in terms of letting cooled cast metal just sit around. Every foundry I've been to has some cast materials in a staging area, but I've never seen one hold on to material for months to cure.

I'm not saying you're wrong, just that I've been to plenty of foundries that don't do anything like you're describing, so I'm surprised to hear about time-curing metal. I did a quick search and didn't find anything, so if you've got some information you can post so I can see what these companies are doing, it would be very helpful.

David, I'm sorry if we hijacked the thread, but I don't want people out there worried that all the cast parts in their tools (and cars!) haven't been sitting around curing for long enough.

Thanks.

[scorrpio]

Catmandu - Would be interesting to read up on whatever your source of info is. A check of Powermatic website revealed absolutely nothing about 'curing cast iron', and overall Google search yielded only links about curing cast-iron cookware (which involves coating a skillet in oil and heating it), not letting it sit idle for a year.

In fact, from a Powermatic catalog:

In 1958, Powermatic took a unique step in the industry by establishing its own 50,000 square foot foundry. This enabled the company to keep tight control on the precision and quality of its castings and to ensure that the Meehanite(tm) process, still in use today, would put the company at the forefront of the woodworking machinery manufacturing process for years to come

Visit http://www.meehanitemetal.com for info on the process.
In particular:

Meehanite is different from ordinary cast iron for a number of reasons and offers distinct advantages: Uniform Soundness, Consistent Physical Properties and Dependable Performance In Service. This section describes the essentials of the Meehanite Process. Meehanite is actually three things. First, it's a patented process for casting metals to
exact and well-defined engineering specifications. Second, it's a series of superior engineering cast irons including nodular graphite irons, flake graphite irons and white cast irons. Third, it's a select group of world class foundries capable of supplying Meehanite castings weighing less than a pound to large components weighing over 300,000 pounds, one-of-a-kind or in quantities exceeding millions of parts.

The Meehanite Process In a Nutshell The dense, fine grain structure of Meehanite metal which assures casting solidity and consistent physical properties relate the carbide stability of the molten metal, both before and after processing to the casting section. These controls which are the basis of a series of patents dating back to 1927 are fundamental to the Meehanite process and are the primary reasons for the structural integrity exhibited by Meehanite castings.

Expressed in it's simplest form, Meehanite metal is first melted to a definite degree of undercooling or constitution which is related to the section of the casting to be poured and the range of physical properties such as tensile strength and hardness required. Nucleation with patented mixtures of graphitizing agents results in the removal of undercooling, in the controlled precipitation of graphite and in a fine grained eutectic cell structure which determines the density and physical integrity of the casting. Ordinary cast irons made to chemical specifications which do not include the benefit of controlled undercooling are influenced by mass effect to a maximum degree and for this and other reasons cannot be considered an equivalent to Meehanite metal.

Can't seem to find anything on 'curing' or anything like it.