I bought this lathe new in 2004 and still use it occasionally. This lathe has mostly good design and capabilities. The original 6" 3 jaw chuck is very good - less than .001" runout through most of the range. However there are several issues. The headstock gearbox had a good cup of casting sand and metal chips at the bottom under the oil level. It looks like they did not clean the casting and created metal chips during assembly by drilling the shafts for pins. As a result the spindle bearings were damaged from the start. Grizzly supplied these and other damaged parts under warranty free of charge. The feed gearbox is a total oil loss type and requires constant lubrication. I would gladly pay extra for an enclosed gearbox. I had to rework the headstock to install the gearbox drain tube - otherwise all oil will end up on the floor during oil change. The apron gearbox has a serious oil leak - still unresolved. The carriage way oil seals are a joke - I had to replace them with the felt seals. The tailstock did not have any way oil seals, I had to install them as well. The spindle nose was a press fit to all chucks supplied with the lathe. I had to skim the taper to make it a slide fit and it allowed for easy chuck changes and did not hurt the accuracy a single bit. The bed is designed with the gap for increased capacity. I would rather not have this feature. I never removed the gap for the fear of not being able to place it back. Overall it is a decent machine, but with a few serious problems.

Very nice lathe for the price. The ways were adjusted very close right out of the box. The spindle gearbox operates very smoothly and quietly. The quick change gearbox is a little bit noisy, but works fine. The only thing I didn’t like is one of the brass ball oilers on one of the slides pushed down into its housing when I tried to oil it for the first time.

Decent machine for the $$$. Only complaints I have are as follows: 1.) Dead man switch block is cast iron and it is easily broken if you lean on that switch two hard. 2.) Spindle bore diameter needs to be 1.5" and is on the Gunsmith version. That should be standard on this model as well. 3.) Backlash on the screws is a little excessive. That's something you deal with on any machine, but it's pretty pronounced on the 4003. 4.) Needs to have an option for including a spider on the outboard spindle bore.