New Jet Lathe on the Market

Vaughn McMillan

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Looks like Jet has a new one, a 1440 with a Reeves drive variable speed:

http://www.jettools.com/us/en/new-products-and-offers/new-products/1440-lathe/

No mention of how many horsepower. It incorporated some nifty features, but it's unclear as to whether the lathe is really powerful enough to take advantage of all of them. For example, the dropped extension bed allows for turning bigger pieces, but unless the motor is beefy enough to handle the extra weight, it's not going to be all that useful.
 
Nice looking lathe! If you drill down far enough on the "See Full Details", there's a specification list that shows it has a 1HP motor. At $1300 for the Jet, I'll still settle for my new PSI unit.
 
Ah, I missed the "Show More" link. :thumb:

Yeah, at 1 lonely horsepower, I think Jet is missing the boat on this one. Sort of like a mid-sized 4WD SUV with a small 4 cylinder engine.
 
Why would they do a reeves drive? I still have a Craftsman that is worthless (at least won't sell it to anyone). It even swivels its headstock like my Craftsman. I would stay far far away from that lathe.
 
I'm running a Jet 1442 with the reeves unit... my lathe is about 8 years old.
I hope they've changed and improved the reeves unit... I ran mine about 4 or 5 years with no problems, but have completely rebuilt the reeves unit 2 or 3 times in the past couple of years... my lathe has been a work horse, but the maintenance is getting a little old.

Yesterday my son and I spent the day tearing it down, replacing the rack that runs along the worm gear and changes the speed only to find that that was only part of the problem.. the motor pulleys were frozen too and had to be pulled off, cleaned and remounted.

The "new" lathe actually looks to be a remake of the 1442, with maybe a few improvements.
 
...The "new" lathe actually looks to be a remake of the 1442, with maybe a few improvements.

Yeah, other than a new shape for the headstock cover, the only real visible change or improvement I'm seeing is the ability to mount the extension bed in a couple of different ways. In the lower position, I suspect it'll swing about 24", but I'd sure be hesitant to mount most 24" turning blanks on it.

Like you, I hope they improved the Reeves drive system.
 
If they have not fixed or improved the reeves drive, why bother with a new design?

I noticed this.....

jet_toolrest_clamp.jpg

It looks like the toolrest is now clamped by squeezing the banjo together, not by a bolt pushing directly against the stem of the tool rest. I know that the various tool rests that I have, the stock Nova units, the Oneway bowl rests, and the homemades ones all have just slightly different diameter stems, so this could be a problem?

More info needed, and yeah, 1 lonely hp, well if it is a made in the USA proper motor that really does make 1hp in use, not right before it blows up, then maybe, but I doubt it is a real 1hp Baldor motor, for example.

Still loving my vintage Nova DVR 3000! :D
 
Yeah, other than a new shape for the headstock cover, the only real visible change or improvement I'm seeing is the ability to mount the extension bed in a couple of different ways. In the lower position, I suspect it'll swing about 24", but I'd sure be hesitant to mount most 24" turning blanks on it.

Like you, I hope they improved the Reeves drive system.

My 1442 runs a 1.5 HP motor (I think - may be a 1 HP, not sure right now) but I've stalled it a couple of times... actually the motor didn't stall so much as it made the belt slip when the piece stopped turning... I've mounted a 13 1/2 blank on it and it turned okay until I got a slight catch (I think the tool was dull)... I do think they needed to put one more speed stop on it at about 200 or 250... mine starts at 450 and I had a piece of pecan on it the other day that was a little out of balance... the lathe shook and danced, the head stock lock kept coming off so that the headstock bounced on the ways... not a good feeling with a 20-30 pound chuck of wood swinging my way.... I still haven't finished that bowl.

If they have not fixed or improved the reeves drive, why bother with a new design?

I noticed this..... View attachment 86423

It looks like the toolrest is now clamped by squeezing the banjo together, not by a bolt pushing directly against the stem of the tool rest. I know that the various tool rests that I have, the stock Nova units, the Oneway bowl rests, and the homemades ones all have just slightly different diameter stems, so this could be a problem?

More info needed, and yeah, 1 lonely hp, well if it is a made in the USA proper motor that really does make 1hp in use, not right before it blows up, then maybe, but I doubt it is a real 1hp Baldor motor, for example.

Still loving my vintage Nova DVR 3000! :D

I've never had a problem with my tool rest not holding... more problems with the head stock lock coming loose on out of balance pieces...

When I bought my lathe, I actually was looking at the Nova DVR, but allowed Woodcraft to "talk me out of it" and at their suggestion bought the Jet instead... the Nova I was looking at did have the folded or stamped metal legs instead of the cast iron legs on the Jet, but I have since learned you can get cast iron legs for the Nova....
 
Chuck, I'm pretty sure your 1442 has a 1.5 hp motor. I've stalled the 2 hp motor (or squealed the belts) on my Powermatic a number of times, especially with a coring rig.

Stu, the new tool rest clamp looks like it would accommodate the slightly different post diameters out there, but I wonder how prone it is to cracking.
 
Chuck, I'm pretty sure your 1442 has a 1.5 hp motor. I've stalled the 2 hp motor (or squealed the belts) on my Powermatic a number of times, especially with a coring rig.

Stu, the new tool rest clamp looks like it would accommodate the slightly different post diameters out there, but I wonder how prone it is to cracking.

That was my first thought. As much abuse as the post takes and the possibility of poor casting makes failure a real possibility.
 
Chuck, I'm pretty sure your 1442 has a 1.5 hp motor. I've stalled the 2 hp motor (or squealed the belts) on my Powermatic a number of times, especially with a coring rig.

Stu, the new tool rest clamp looks like it would accommodate the slightly different post diameters out there, but I wonder how prone it is to cracking.

Vaughn,
I checked today when I was in the shop... my 1442 is a 1 hp motor, but has enough umph that I don't hesitate to put 13" blanks on it...

I'd also be concerned about the minimum speed of 400 RPM for out of balance blanks.

Just wish it had a slower speed... my bottom is 450 rpm and right now the rack isn't position just right and when I set it at 450, it's running a way faster.... on a really out of balance blank, the lathe shimmies and shakes and the headstock lock will vibrate loose...

I'm going to have to tear it down again and try to reposition the rack so the speeds are truer.
 
I don't know why they would bring this to market. A reeves drive with a low speed of 400 RPM this day and age seems to be a reflection of someone not paying attention. At that price point they are missing the boat big time IMHO.
 
I'm hoping to make a run to PMC in the next week or two. If they have this machine there I'll try to do a report, I'll ask about taking a few pictures. Of course none of this is like running the machine awhile.

I have the Craftsman beast and that Reeves drive leaves me with a lot of concerns. One thing, I ran it with the cover off to mark where I had full contact with the drive belt. It is very possible that at the minimum RPM the belt doesn't have full contact. Likewise at maximum RPM on the other pulley but maximum RPM rarely requires much torque so less of an issue.

The price makes it tempting but I don't believe I will buy another swivel head lathe at any price. Don't like them, don't trust them. A tiny bit out of alignment is a big difference eight or ten inches out. Mine likes to oscillate with an out of round or out of balance piece too.

The pictures of the headstock I saw looked like a completely different unit than other Jet Lathes, not a selling point! All in all I am shy of this lathe, thinking about the 1221 or just treating my Craftsman as a big clunky mini and quitting expecting even midi performance out of it.

I just went to the Jet site. There is a video on the 1440, somehow it doesn't push any of the right buttons for me. Still going to try to gather what info I can and maybe a picture or two at PMC but I'm more sure I don't want this machine. The video didn't show it doing any real work and seemed somehow rather amateurish. I wasn't thrilled with the safety violations either. Guess I just expect more professionalism from Jet.

This lathe looks to have been built to meet the demands of the sales department instead of the people that know how to turn. Gonna be an uphill battle to sell one to me and I think I'll be kicking my rear if I buy one. For the same price I can have a new Stihl 661. All I make is shavings anyway and that new Stihl will make them far faster than the lathe! The whole video doesn't show it making a real cut.

Hu
 
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