In case anyone is interested, here's MHO of my new lathe..

The jet mini died last week and since it was going to be in the shop a while, I
started shopping for lathes... kind of settled on the 14" Delta for $650..

My wife got involved and asked if it was the only 14" that looked good... I told
her that the Jet was the other one that I had considered, but that I couldn't
see what made the Jet worth $200 more..

She got on the web and researched... and did something that I do for small
electronics and should have done... READ THE REVIEWS.. (yep, she's way smarter
than I am)

The Delta reviews were mostly bad, involving bent pulleys, hand wheels coming
off, bearings seizing, etc... (my dealer says that theses problems have all been
corrected)

The Jet reviews were amazingly good.. like they were aid ads... folks loved
them, have little or no problems, and very few complaints... the wife said
"spend the extra $200 and get the one that has the good reviews"... "yes, mam!

The price out the door was $917, which includes the legs... the lathe is 200
pounds, the legs another 160+, so eat your wheaties before unloading it....
I bought their floor model, being impatient and not wanting to wait for one to
come in, so it came fully assembled... they put it on my truck with a fork lift,
of course..
Got home and took the head and tail stock off, as well as the tool rest... that
lightened it up quite a bit...
Got my wife and 2 neighbors to help get the beast off the truck and set up.. it
takes up a LOT more of the gra.. shop that the mini did!! (about 3 1/2' longer)

The alignment after putting the head and tail stock back on was as close to
perfect as I would hope for: I swiveled the head stock around a bit and then
locked it on the detent, slit the tail stock over and they matched up like it
had never been swiveled..

The lathe seems powerful after the mini, and the 12" tool rest is way big for
bowls... gotta get a new set of rests, since the post is bigger on the 1442..
It walked around when I put an out of balance log on it for a test... but only
in a straight line, following the slope of the garage floor... a shelf with a
couple of hundred pounds of logs made it walk less..

Variable speed is handy... the control is sort of in the way at times, but no
setup is perfect..

Spindle Lock.. WONFERFUL! Why doesn't the mini have one?

Motor and pulleys are very quiet.. maybe twice the sound level of the mini and
still quiet enough for me to forget it's running and walk away from it..

I like the power switch on the head stock, as opposed to the tail stock end as
on the mini.. maybe it just makes sense to have it there, or it's my 20+ years
on a shopsmith, but I naturally reach towards a motor when reaching for a
switch..

2 minor complaints:

As mentioned here a while ago, the motor is mounted in a very strange place,
next to the head stock with the fan end in the perfect position to suck in
shavings and sanding dust, and sticking out almost as far as a face plate
would... weird...

It's nice to have VS, a spindle lock and a swiveling head stock, but when you
put the controls for these, plus the power switch, it gets pretty crowded in a 9
or 10" square area... the power switch can be hard to find in a hurry when the
speed handle is in one of the slower positions... not a good safety feature in
MHO..
Note: Being left handed and finding the controls crowded, they must really be
fun for right handers...

Over all, it's a lot of lathe for the money and is probably the largest that a
home hobby-type would get, considering the prices.. going to 16" adds $1,000 to
the tag..

Oh.. it also has a bunch of indexing holes on the spindle... I haven't got a
clue what they're for and the manual doesn't say, so the indexing screw is in my
face plate drawer, but this might be a feature that folks look for..



mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

"mac davis" wrote in message
news
The lathe seems powerful after the mini, and the 12" tool rest is way big
for
bowls... gotta get a new set of rests, since the post is bigger on the
1442..
It walked around when I put an out of balance log on it for a test... but
only
in a straight line, following the slope of the garage floor... a shelf
with a
couple of hundred pounds of logs made it walk less..

Variable speed is handy... the control is sort of in the way at times, but
no
setup is perfect..

Spindle Lock.. WONFERFUL! Why doesn't the mini have one?

Motor and pulleys are very quiet.. maybe twice the sound level of the mini
and
still quiet enough for me to forget it's running and walk away from it..

I like the power switch on the head stock, as opposed to the tail stock
end as
on the mini.. maybe it just makes sense to have it there, or it's my 20+
years
on a shopsmith, but I naturally reach towards a motor when reaching for a
switch..

Yeah, the one horse on the Nova may slip the belt a bit, but doesn't stall.

http://www.bestwoodtools.com/ on the rest. Optimum seems it would be 8" on
a 16" swing for outside. I have no problem with the 12 on the Nova, though
I never used anything but the six on the 12" Delta. That and a curved rest.
You can get posts only if you got your rests from them in the first place.

Hand spin and trim will do more for you and the machine than a heap of
weight. The piece remains as out of balance and prone to depart as if the
machine were unrestrained.

Variable speed is something that only confuses us Polacks.

Had a hex on the other end of Old Blue's shaft, so never really used the
spindle lock. Of course, I was prone to using inertia. PITA on the Nova,
because I forget to take it off.

After a dozen years in jets I couldn't hear a freight train at twelve paces.

I want my power switch where I don't have to reach anywhere near a spinning
lump to turn the machine on or off. Scares me. Move it and learn a new
habit.

You're going to be pushing the size the limit for a while, aren't you? I
know I did. Enjoy.

On Mon, 6 Jun 2005 13:34:47 -0400, "George" wrote:
snip

Hand spin and trim will do more for you and the machine than a heap of
weight. The piece remains as out of balance and prone to depart as if the
machine were unrestrained.

yeah, I would have trimmed it round and squared the ends normally, but I wanted
to see what it would do at about max diameter..

Variable speed is something that only confuses us Polacks.

I guess it's another hold over from the shopsmith, but I kind of like not having
to stop the lathe, change the belt position, etc... just spoiled, I guess.. *g*

Had a hex on the other end of Old Blue's shaft, so never really used the
spindle lock. Of course, I was prone to using inertia. PITA on the Nova,
because I forget to take it off.

You can't leave this on, afaik.. I use the chuck screw a lot and when I'm
threading the screw into the bowl blank, I have to hold the lock in or not turn
the spindle.. seems to spring out when the spindle moves at all..

I want my power switch where I don't have to reach anywhere near a spinning
lump to turn the machine on or off. Scares me. Move it and learn a new
habit.

Yeah... I was thinking of putting in a remote switch, like on the router
table... with a BIG lever... I might put it on the table that I lay the chisels
on..

You're going to be pushing the size the limit for a while, aren't you? I
know I did. Enjoy.

of course, George!
since i skipped the 12" one, I have to have some reason to wish that I had a
16", right?


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Mac:
I have had one of these for about two years and love it. I use it as a
general woodshop tool and it has served me well. This was my first lathe
and it has been a good teacher. The only problem I have had is a sticky
speed control. At JETs advice I disassembled it, cleaned it out and lightly
burnished the pin. Seems to work fine now.

Someone mentioned JET noise and this certainly hasn't been a problem for me.
Unloaded you can hardly hear it run. Loaded noise depends on what I have
mounted but mostly air noise until I start cutting.

Have fun with it.

RonB

On Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:45:10 -0500, "RonB" wrote:

Mac:
I have had one of these for about two years and love it. I use it as a
general woodshop tool and it has served me well. This was my first lathe
and it has been a good teacher. The only problem I have had is a sticky
speed control. At JETs advice I disassembled it, cleaned it out and lightly
burnished the pin. Seems to work fine now.

Someone mentioned JET noise and this certainly hasn't been a problem for me.
Unloaded you can hardly hear it run. Loaded noise depends on what I have
mounted but mostly air noise until I start cutting.

Have fun with it.

RonB

I read several reviews that said that the speed control loosened up with a
little use.. I guess not, since yours is a couple of years old...
I guess that after cranking the shopsmith speed dial, this is heaven, so it
doesn't bother me..
I have noticed that if, when going from lowest speed (where it seems to stick a
bit) that if I pull the handle up (unlock) and then put a little pressure
towards slow, it comes up very smoothly...

The 1442 is louder than the Mini, but at 800 rpm, the wind noise of the talon
chuck is almost as loud as the motor... and compared to the shopsmith or most of
my sanders, this lathe is damn near silent.. lol



mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

mac davis wrote:
On Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:45:10 -0500, "RonB" wrote:


Mac:
I have had one of these for about two years and love it. I use it as a
general woodshop tool and it has served me well. This was my first lathe
and it has been a good teacher. The only problem I have had is a sticky
speed control. At JETs advice I disassembled it, cleaned it out and lightly
burnished the pin. Seems to work fine now.

Someone mentioned JET noise and this certainly hasn't been a problem for me.
Unloaded you can hardly hear it run. Loaded noise depends on what I have
mounted but mostly air noise until I start cutting.

Have fun with it.

RonB


I read several reviews that said that the speed control loosened up with a
little use.. I guess not, since yours is a couple of years old...
I guess that after cranking the shopsmith speed dial, this is heaven, so it
doesn't bother me..
I have noticed that if, when going from lowest speed (where it seems to stick a
bit) that if I pull the handle up (unlock) and then put a little pressure
towards slow, it comes up very smoothly...

The 1442 is louder than the Mini, but at 800 rpm, the wind noise of the talon
chuck is almost as loud as the motor... and compared to the shopsmith or most of
my sanders, this lathe is damn near silent.. lol



mac

Please remove splinters before emailing
I have had a Jet 1442 for about two years now and been very well
pleased. I my opinion it is the best lathe in it's price range.
There was originally a little problem with the speed control but with
use it went away. I try to turn somethig everyday, large bowles to
garden dibbles, so it gets a lot of use and I have had no problems. My
first lathe was Delta 1440, it was pretty bad, not even in the same
ballpark as the Jet. If I upgrade it will probably be PowerMatic 3520.
Enjoy your new lathe..

LB

On Wed, 08 Jun 2005 15:24:30 -0400, Q47M wrote:


I have had a Jet 1442 for about two years now and been very well
pleased. I my opinion it is the best lathe in it's price range.
There was originally a little problem with the speed control but with
use it went away. I try to turn somethig everyday, large bowles to
garden dibbles, so it gets a lot of use and I have had no problems. My
first lathe was Delta 1440, it was pretty bad, not even in the same
ballpark as the Jet. If I upgrade it will probably be PowerMatic 3520.
Enjoy your new lathe..

LB


thanks, LB... you reinforced my (ok, my wife's) decision to pass on the Delta
and pay the extra $200 for the Jet..

So far I've turned about a dozen bowls on it and I'm lovin' it..


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing