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The Harbor Freight 93885 And Grizzly G0463 Are Identical - Redux

"You can have any color you want as long as it's black." Henry Ford

Well, make that Sieg red or Grizzly green.

In our initial page comparing the two versions (when Grizzly launched the G0463 in early 2006), we based the write-up on data provided by the vendors. Of course, Harbor Freight, in its inifite wisdom put out their usual lackluster "data" and supporting materials in the form of inaccurate specs (see the 8x12 lathe weight as an example) and poorly written manual. Grizzly in this regard is top-notch.

In one of the Yahoo! groups late 2006, Chris Wood from LittleMachineShop mentioned that the Harbor Freight model was indeed spec'd the same as the Grizzly offering. This thread was short-lived and no one had purchased one from HF at the time who could verify of disprove any claims. And so it went..

What happened next (aside from the January 2007 release of the Sieg Super X3), was that one member of the SIEG-SX3-C6B group posted a message which reads as follows (thanks Tex!):

I posted this on cnczone but decided it was valuable info so am posting it here too since Harbor Freight's ERROR filled docs and advertising is Confusing. I love to shop Harbor Freight but heres the real truth!

REAL dimensions on my Harbor Freight 93885 Mill (I received Jan 15,2006)

I am a proud owner of the Harbor Freight Sieg X3 mill. [Harbor Freight #93885 . I brought it home from the freight dock today. Harbor Freight got Yellow Freight to send from Calif to Texas for $65.

Harbor Freight has created MAJOR CONFUSION in what you are buying. Truth:
1.The Mill IS dimensioned exactly the same as the Grizzy sieg x3 item G0463.
2. The Harbor Freight online dimensions and advertising ARE TOTALLY WRONG. The Harbor Freight online Manual is TOTALLY WRONG. Discription is for the model manufactured by Sieg several years ago.
3. The Harbor Freight Manual packed with my mill is also WRONG and is identical to the one one their website which gives incorrect specs.
4. Download the manual and spec sheet for the Grizzly G0463 and that is what I bought from Harbor Freight (except in Red paint) I'm going to print the Grizzly manual so I will have an accurate manual!
5. The mill table IS 21 5/8 inches long like Grizzly mill instead of 17 5/8
as shown in Harbor Freight specs.
6. All critical dimensions for travel and ball screw length seem to be the same as the Grizzly mill.

I looked for hours on CNCZone for someone who had actually seen that the mills are actually the same and only found a post by Chris from Little Machine Shop. He had been in the Sieg factory in China and saw that the Grizzly and Harbor Freight were identical but for paint. That was good enough for me so I blindly ordered the mill knowing I might have to cut off my y & z ballscrew to make it fit if he was wrong. He was correct and I am very happy that my cncfusion kit will fit my mill without being cut down. PS I'm Very Happy with the mill!

And there you have it. Take your pic at vendor. Given this reality and given that the price differential between the Harbor Freight and Grizzly is negligable, it almost seems like Grizzly would be the all-out choice when selecting a vendor from whom to buy the Sieg X3. That would change of course if the 93885 was stocked in the HF stores and a 20% coupon could be applied...

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