Todd in PA
Member
Well, my Central Machinery lathe from Harbor Freight has probably run its course. It's been making some racket for a while and I've taken it apart and changed the belt and lubed things and it's been limping along, inching slightly noisier each week. When I try to change the gears, it gets hung up at the same place at around 1500 rmps. Yesterday as I worked on my first real kitless pen, it threw the belt at 1500. Twice. I pulled out the gear shaft and find it's chewed up. I got this one with a HF coupon for around $350, and I think I got my money's worth out of it. I won't repair it, but might see if I can get it into a gear at a good polishing speed for single use...
I finished my pen (sort of) while staying in the upper half of the gears. I don't recommend drilling at 1500, HaHa. It's what I call my long-capper! I didn't bother to polish it. I'm going to modify the cap first for obvious reasons. I'll also take some advice on polishing the threads at a later date. It's a rhino blank (polyester resin) which didn't thread so well. I bought some good acrylic rod, but amy trying to make my mistakes on the stuff I have in a dusty drawer. I'm going to say it's not bad for my first one.
Anyway...I digress.
SWMBO has been urging me to get a better lathe for a while. With the wife giving me the go-ahead, I'm ready to . I feel my hobby is worth spending some money on at this point.
The Jet 1221 is $150 off at woodcraft, but sale ends today. https://www.woodcraft.com/products/jet-1221vs-lathe
I'm *this* close to shipping it, but wanted to take an opinion or two here first. Maybe there's another lathe I should be considering?
I finished my pen (sort of) while staying in the upper half of the gears. I don't recommend drilling at 1500, HaHa. It's what I call my long-capper! I didn't bother to polish it. I'm going to modify the cap first for obvious reasons. I'll also take some advice on polishing the threads at a later date. It's a rhino blank (polyester resin) which didn't thread so well. I bought some good acrylic rod, but amy trying to make my mistakes on the stuff I have in a dusty drawer. I'm going to say it's not bad for my first one.
Anyway...I digress.
SWMBO has been urging me to get a better lathe for a while. With the wife giving me the go-ahead, I'm ready to . I feel my hobby is worth spending some money on at this point.
The Jet 1221 is $150 off at woodcraft, but sale ends today. https://www.woodcraft.com/products/jet-1221vs-lathe
I'm *this* close to shipping it, but wanted to take an opinion or two here first. Maybe there's another lathe I should be considering?