Largest thing you've done on Jet mini

[TheHeretic]

Just curious as to what those who have a jet mini have done on the lathe. I started one last night of cherry that was about 9 wide and about 9 deep. This was a cut log that I got from a guy at work. Even at low speed this made the work bench vibrate all to hell. ANd now I have cherry all over the shop! Great things!!

Just curious as to what others have turned on the bench.


Dean
Columbus OH

 

[ryannmphs]

I think the largest on my Midi has been a 7" bowl. My lathe didn't vibe too much as 1) It's bolted to it's stand and 2) my blank was bandsawed round prior to going to the lathe.

Ryan

 

[chigdon]

I have not turned anything quite that big but close. I have turned 2 9" wide bowls. One was more of an open traditional bowl that was about 9" x 5" and another what was about 9" x 4" but was a hollow form with about a 1" opening in the top. It was a challenge to hollow it out with the mini lathe.

 

[old folks]

Dean, most every Jet mini owner will tell you, you must bolt the mini to a solid work bench to fight vibration. If you mount it to a roll around type bench make sure to add plenty of weight to the bench !

 

[TheHeretic]

Mine Jet is bolted and I still usually add a couple of clamps on it. And yeah I did have to add quite a but of weight to the end of the table. and I still had vibrations. Now to work on getting something to hold the weight. Its tough to do hollow forms when none of my tools go that far. But for now it was advertuersome to say the least.


Dean
Columbus OH

 

[mrcook4570]

Largest I've done on my mini was a 9 1/2" diameter clock. Was turned on my pen mandrel before I had any chucks.

 

[woodwish]

Turned a few shallow 9" inch shallow bowls from some dry 12/4 walnut that I cut round on the BS first. This was actually a Delta Midi but it's basically the same machine in operation and measurements. Those worked real nice and smooth so I got brave a tackled some greener stuff to make my first natural edge bowl, maybe 8" dia by 6" deep. With the lowest speed of only 500 rpm it about scared me to death until I got it shaped a little more round. The vibration never stopped but did smooth out some. Never really had the horsepower to use my new big bowl gouge on the inside either.

The bowl never really finished to look decent, ended up cracking badly. Still sits on a shelf in the shop to remind me why I bought a bigger lathe with a bigger motor. Still love to turn natural edge bowls but they don't scare me as bad. My new lathe should handle up to 16" dia but haven't found teh wood or the nerve to do it.

 

[woodwish]

Stan, nice clock! Even more impressive that you managed to do it with a pen mandrel instead of a chuck.

 

[mrcook4570]

I jammed a slimline bushing inside the hole for the shaft. I turned 5 other clocks using this method. Haven't turned a single clock since I got a chuck.

 

[chigdon]

It is amazing you did that clock on a mandrel. Forget the mini lathe, that is amazing!

 

[Randy_]

Originally posted by TheHeretic<br />.....Even at low speed this made the work bench vibrate all to hell.....

No one ever says much about it since Jet minis are mostly used for small projects; but the one "BIG" weakness of the mini is that it does not have a real low speed for turning large unbalanced blanks. Would have been nice if if the mini had a real slow speed!!!

Curious note: The VS model has the same lower end as the 6 speed model.....500 RPMS. Intuitively, you might expect the VS model to have a lower low end; but it doesn't??