More Industrial Equipment! Jet 1236 Lathe

I haven't even unloaded this thing yet, but if something happens in the garage and you don't tell GRM about it, did it really even happen?

A few years ago I bought a 100-year-old lathe at a furniture auction, which led me down the path of machining, which convinced me to drag home a Bridgeport mill next. Now that I'm spending more time with the Bridgeport, I wanted a more capable lathe.

Meet the Jet, everybody! I picked it up for $700 last night. Not a screaming deal, not terrible, but I did see it run and everything seems to be in good shape.

I'll keep this thread updated as I move this new hunk of metal into the garage and (hopefully) make stuff with it.

Pictures!

That seems like a bargain to me! Similar lathes are usually listed for 2-3k around me.

Congrats

Yeah, that looks to be fairly well bought to me. 

Haha, another paper cut!! Well done.

I went down a similar path. I first got a small Craftsman/Atlas 12-36 lathe and it was great. Now with the Bport, the lathe just feels like a toy and I want to upgrade. Looking forward to reading about your creations.

Congratulations.  In this part of the country that's a steal.

Delayed double post, whoops

Ok, let's get this thing unloaded:

I weighed it quick, but for some reason one of the scale pads wasn't working and I didn't notice until I looked at the photos just now... either way this thing is heavy!

Notice something? Yeah: No tooling. This would be a major expense for the average buyer, but I've got a trick up my sleeve: I still have buckets of stuff that came with my first lathe.

I didn't have time to start cleanup, but I did have a minute to look through my machining bin and find some goodies. I'm already well on my way to having a full set of tooling for this bigger lathe! 

Giant 4-jaw chuck:

And a few drill chucks and centers with the correct taper for the Jet. 

Good for you, I hope it's a good one. We just scrapped one like this as it became unservicable.

I spent some time cleaning and painting the stand. It's not the finest thing in the world, but it's good enough for now and I don't have time to re-make it.

Paint booth:

Then reassemble and rub down the top with ATF after a thorough wire brushing:

And the finished product:

I deleted the factory chip pan, too, since this bench does the same thing and the chip pan gets in the way. It's in the shed if I ever change my mind. 

Looks awesome.  Well bought!

It's got the power-feed on the cross-slide.  I'm jealous.

Think about adding a back-splash to the table - little parts love to roll off the back and behind the machine.  Anything will work - sheet metal, plywood, coroplast, whatever.

In reply to TVR Scott :

Yes! Power cross feed was a must-have; I'm not sure how I could ever live without it.

I thought about building a backsplash, but with the raised lip on the bench I'm not sure I'll need it. I'll test it out as-is for a few months first. 
 

I haven't made too much progress, but I do have a few quick updates here.

First up: A four-jaw chuck. The new lathe didn't come with any tooling, but now that I own a lathe that should hold a decent tolerance, I really didn't want to rely on only a three-jaw. What's the difference? This Old Tony explains better than I can, but basically a four-jaw chuck lets you set up work much more accurately.

One problem: These things are super expensive. Good thing I already had one! This chuck came with my old lathe, but I never even tried to attach it. It seems like the backplate is cut for my old lathe's spindle, but it's so big that you wouldn't be able to spin it without it being nearly totally closed. Must have been for some weird one-off setup or something.

Fortunately, it's perfectly sized for my new (bigger) lathe. And after a soak in the Evapo-rust I think it will work nicely. I'll need to make a backplate for it, but that's a project for another day.

I made some other progress this weekend, too. The old lathe moved on to a new owner, which meant I could move the new one into its nearly final resting place:

Why "nearly" final? Because this bench didn't come with adjustable feet, and there's no way I'm leveling the lathe with shims. I'll pull things back out one more time when the feet get here, then hopefully put it into this corner for good.

Tom Suddard said:

I'll keep this thread updated as I move this new hunk of metal into the garage and (hopefully) make stuff with it.

 

Can you make a new tow truck tire with it?

In reply to Jerry From LA :

When I called the seller and asked if he had "a forklift or something to load it on my trailer" he assured me he had it handled.

He wasn't wrong... it took him 5 minutes start to finish to load things up, flat tire and all. Good enough for me. 

Looking good!

It's been a while since I've updated this thread, so let's get that fixed.

First up, leveling. It's important to level your lathe, otherwise it might cut on a taper. Doesn't make any sense? This Old Tony has a great explanation here:

One problem: I didn't have a way to level my lathe, aside from stacking playing cards or something under the feet. That's not exactly a sturdy, permanent solution.

You know what is? Equipment leveling feet! In fact, the bench came tapped with 3/4-16 holes that were probably originally used for this purpose. I ordered new feet from McMaster-Carr for about $40.

Success! I also bought a new set of hardware to replace the missing/mismatched crap that originally held the lathe to the bench. Hopefully I'll have a nice, sturdy, level platform to make parts from.

Next up: Wiring. 

Why isn't anything I buy ever properly grounded?! Seriously: This is a really good way to get electrocuted.

The cord is also about 20' long, which just gets in the way and sucks down voltage for no reason. Let's fix it.

One other thing to fix: I needed to change the voltage from 110v to 220v. Most motors, this one included, are designed to work on either voltage. Running this 2 hp motor on a 110v plug means I'll need 30 amps, which I don't have easily available at that voltage. But at 220v, it only needs 15, and I've got welding outlets all over the place. Converting the wiring should mean I don't constantly blow 110v breakers. Plus, it's slightly more energy efficient, too. I found the wiring diagram on the motor cover. 

I won't go into the details on how to do this, as you either already know or need more education than I can give in a forum post to do it safely, but here are some photos:

Success!

I replaced a few missing knobs, too. I know it doesn't really matter, but it looks good and it's more comfortable to not be touching jagged metal threads every time you turn your lathe on. Hooray for 3D printers! I borrowed some Caliper Garage printer time to make PETG replacements.