Can anyone tell me if Jet lathes are any good for the home workshop? I can
get a 9x20 with the stand and all the tooling locally for $500.00 . It's 4
yrs old and in great shape. Thx....John

"John" wrote in message
...
Can anyone tell me if Jet lathes are any good for the home workshop? I can
get a 9x20 with the stand and all the tooling locally for $500.00 . It's 4
yrs old and in great shape. Thx....John
Sounds like a good deal. Jet is the best of the asian (worst) machines.
Realize its a light duty unit and may have to be modified for best
preformance.

Karl

I bought a brand new JET shipped right from the dealer in a crate, and
it was one pathetic piece of wanna be machinery to say the
least......I did eventually get things worked out to make it right
with JET, as the dealer got his $$$$$ and then failed to provide
service and satisfaction. However if you can lay your eyeballs on it,
and see it first hand new or used, thats not a bad price if its in
decent shape by any means.

==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!
"The original frugal ponder"
~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o

The larger import lathes are built pretty good for home lathes however
the 9X20 seems to have been left behind.
All of the imports need to be disasembeled upon arrival and cleaned and set
back up right. They have heavy cosmoline in all areas plus often there is
sand from the castings in there also. It does no good to just clean what you
see as the bearings, inside the carriage, the head, quick change and all
other mechanisms need to be taken apart , cleaned, relubed and reassembeled.
If this is not performed you'll have no end of problems, bearings trying to
seize up wearing gears out very quickly. Trust me, I know first hand.
Since this is a second hand machine you just have to hope the previous
owner did this. The 9X20's, although looking good are not built very good
compared to the larger imports. they are noisy and sloppy and wear pretty
quickly. They are O.K. for occasional, light duty use and if you have no
other lathe it sure beats nothing, especially at that price.
Dick

--
Richard H. Neighbors
Building and repairing fine billiard cues for real pool players at
affordable prices.
Over 35 years exp. Located in Cincinnati OH
ph.# 513 233-7499
e-mail
web site http://www.dickiecues.com
"John" wrote in message
...
Can anyone tell me if Jet lathes are any good for the home workshop? I can
get a 9x20 with the stand and all the tooling locally for $500.00 . It's 4
yrs old and in great shape. Thx....John

That's a decent deal assuming that "all the tooling" includes the original
steady rest, follow rest, faceplate, chuck, gears, etc.

The drawbacks to that lathe in addition to what others have mentioned are
that it does not have a powered crossfeed, it only has a partial quickchange
gearbox and it's lowest speed is too high for many things.

The same basic lathe is available from Enco, Grizzly, Harbor Freight,
Wholesale Tool and probably a few others but you'll get good support from
JET. When I picked mine up at a local auction it had a bad gear and JET
sent me a manual for free so I could find the part number of the gear and
then shipped the gear to me very quickly.

BTW, the manual is now available online.

http://www.wmhtoolgroup.com/partfiles/m_321373.pdf

Best Regards,
Keith Marshall


"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"


"John" wrote in message
...
Can anyone tell me if Jet lathes are any good for the home workshop? I can
get a 9x20 with the stand and all the tooling locally for $500.00 . It's 4
yrs old and in great shape. Thx....John

"John" wrote in message
...
Can anyone tell me if Jet lathes are any good for the home workshop? I can
get a 9x20 with the stand and all the tooling locally for $500.00 . It's 4
yrs old and in great shape. Thx....John

I would pass on a 9x20 - see Dick's comments...
I have had a 12x36 for over 20 yrs, granted my use has been light duty,
but for a home workshop it is the best for the money, by far...
a used one will be hard to find.

HTH
Otto

The 9X20 is the worst of the larger Asian lathes. They're not in 'great
shape' when new....
A 12X36, even a Chinese one(as opposed to a TW), will be much better
quality.
JR
Dweller in the cellar

John wrote:
Can anyone tell me if Jet lathes are any good for the home workshop? I can
get a 9x20 with the stand and all the tooling locally for $500.00 . It's 4
yrs old and in great shape. Thx....John




--
--------------------------------------------------------------
Home Page: http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth
If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes
Doubt yourself, and the real world will eat you alive
The world doesn't revolve around you, it revolves around me
No skeletons in the closet; just decomposing corpses
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dependence is Vulnerability:
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Open the Pod Bay Doors please, Hal"
"I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.."

The older Jets made in Taiwan were good machines. I bought a 13x36 in 1986
and it has performed well.

Randy

"John" wrote in message
...
Can anyone tell me if Jet lathes are any good for the home workshop? I can
get a 9x20 with the stand and all the tooling locally for $500.00 . It's 4
yrs old and in great shape. Thx....John