New Lathe recs needed. $500 budget.

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Aces-High

Aces-High

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Joined
Jun 22, 2017
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Location
Boulder, Colorado
I have a used Jet lathe. It often turns out not quite round pens, even tbc. I think it might be the bearings. I have noticed a slight wobble in the hand wheel and am thinking that might also be a sign of bad bearings.

Thoughts and reccomendations appreciated.

Thanks,

Jason
 
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The Rikon 70-220vsr is on sale at Woodcraft this month for $500 that is $150 off. I just upgraded to this last month and am loving it.
link
 
Buy a small metal working lathe from LittleMachineShop, Harbor Freight, or Grizzly.
 
Aces-High said:
magpens said:
Buy a small metal working lathe from LittleMachineShop, Harbor Freight, or Grizzly.
Click to expand...


Why Mal?
Click to expand...

It cost les than $25 to replace the bearings on your current lathe. The metal lathes are so a lot more accurate than a wood lathe. You can make stuff with a metal lathe, like your own custom TBC bushings. You can also turn wood on a metal lathe, you do have to clean up your wood chips and dust before using it to turn metal if using an oil cutting fluid. I use the cross slide cutter to make brass and aluminum pens and pen parts.

One last hint, look at some of Skip Rat's posts from the past.
 
Replacing bearings on a lathe is an inexpensive fix. If that is all that is wrong with it you should just replace the bearings. There are tutorials on how to do it. Jet lathes are good lathes.
 
My guess is that the tailstock is not perfectly aligned with the headstock. This is the problem with wood lathes, which is to say you can't adjust the tailstock.

However, the larger Nova lathes have the capability to adjust their tailstock and even a tool that is basically a double ended 2MT.

I have a jet lathe that is not aligned correctly. I ended up shimming under the tailstock to bring it in line with the headstock.

Or, if your tailstock has a little play left to right, you can eyeball it and gently tighten it down while it is lined up and it might stay lined up. But my Jet doesn't have any left to right slop, so this wont work on mine.

Metal lathes have gibs which allow you to adjust it. I cant understand for the life of me why all wood lathes don't have this feature. It only makes sense...
 
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