East Indian Rosewood and Cocobolo Sierrias

[splinter99]

I posted before that in the middle of getting a bunch of orders completed for Christmas, My jet mini lathe gave up the ghost..I called the nice folks at Jet and they are sending me a new motor since its still under warrenty. But that wasnt going to get the orders done before Christmas..So Saturday morning on the way to my turning club meeting, a friend and I met at the Harbor Freight that I work at..He was going to purchase the mini lathe we had on sale for $179.99 ($154.00 with my discount) It's a 10x18 copy of the jet..So I talked him into letting me "test it out" for him untill my motor gets here..So 2 pepper mills, a wood burner handle, a few bottle stoppers and a few ornaments latter, I decided I better try a couple of pens on it.

The first is East Indian Rosewood with sap wood

Cocobolo

Both are ca/blo finish

Thanks for looking, comments are welcome.

Happy Holidays everyone

 

[toolcrazy]

Couple beauties. Nice work.

 

[LostintheWoods]

A couple of nice looking pens. So......how did the lathe perform? How does it compare to your Jet? I'm sure there are some folks here who are "in the market" for a lathe, and would appreciate your answers to these questions.....maybe a full-blown review would be possible? Just a thought.

 

[splinter99]

I may do a review of it..In a nut shell.. Changing the belt on the HFT lathe involves removing 2 small pannels held on by thumb screws and losening the motor with an allen wrench..not a real big deal but its a little eaiser on the jet. On the middle step on the pully(wich is where I turned most of the time on the Jet) it seems faster on the HFT lathe.
the levers to lock the tool rest and banjo are plastic, where the jet is all metal and
there is no place to keep the knock out bar, like on the jet. but these are all small things..For someone who wants to see if they like turning, or just wants to do small things like bottle stoppers and pens, This may be a good deal..HFT has been emailing out 20% off coupons lately so armed with one of those when the lathe is on sale, your looking at less then $150.00..

I drilled out 2 10 inch pepper mills and had no problems..I also like that the spindle is 1x8 tpi and both head and tail stock have #2 morse tapers..The motor is 1/2 hp (same as the jet) and you get a little more legnth on the HFT lathe 18 inch vs 14..
All in all, this lathe pulled my ass out of a jam..It would also be good for some one wanting another small lathe to do demos on or maybe one to take with you in your motor home

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=65345

 

[Dalecamino]

Very nice finish on some really nice colored wood .

Happy Holidays to you !

 

[bitshird]

Nice looking pens, nice quick review of the lathe also