HF 34706 lathe

A war can occasionally be a good thing, Dominic. See how much we learned from these guys?

As did I. Stuff I had no idea about, in fact.

Glad to hear things are working out for you, Dom. Being new to this myself, I can appreciate minor glitches and problems, to say nothing of turning itself. Good luck and good turning.

Max

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Dominic, The measurements on your lathe are all metric, so you'll need to check that out before you try to find a Nylok fastener.

Ken Moon Webberville, TX

Ol' Blue uses a jam nut setup. Better than a nylock, IMHO. Let your fingers walk to a fastener place and get two half-thickness nuts.

"Dominic Palazzola" wrote: (clip) I had an issue with the reeves drive, the pulley on the motor was froze and wouldn't move when changing speeds. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That is a chronic problem with all these Reeves drives, including the Jet

1236 (yours is a knock off, as you doubtless know.) The movable pulley halves can become so tightly frozen that you will wonder whether they can be freed up without damage. So, I recommend that you clean and lubricate BEFORE the problem returns--maybe every few months. It is worst when it gets very cold, but I had the problem in California. We now have other problems here.:-)

hey leo, thanks for the response,, i did apply some lithium grease to the drive mechanism, you say my lathe is a knock off of the jet 1236. are you sure about this or is it the same lathe with a different color?

Leo, Put to rest a minor question re how cold adversely affects Reeve's and Hi-Lo type drives. I guess mostly it freezes the grease, but if if shrinking the pulley more than the shaft counts, then maybe (theory only) a different pulley metal could help. BTW, are there anti-freeze greases? As to the belts, (again practicality aside) a cold stiff belt should actually help the belt move the sheave halves? I know that broad V belts with firm inelastic sides were available for these mechanical VS drives, but since link belts work so well they don't seem worthwhile. Arch

Fortiter,

Dominic,

Patent laws in other countries, specifically Taiwan and mainland China, differ from those in the US and Canada. In the case of the PRC (China) no patent laws exist for the most part. This fosters the tendency for one or several companies to copy other's products, occasionally with no perceptible differences, save color and name badges. So it may be impossible to tell if your lathe from Harbor Freight is produced by the same company that produces the Jet 1236. It could be the same, but more likely it's a copy produced by someone else. That, however, does not necessarily make it inferior to the Jet. As mentioned above some of the copies are virtually identical. I haven't spent enough time examining the HF lathe to tell if differences exist.

Max

maxprop you made a good point, and I suspected the same thing, the grizzly lathe which looks like the jet and the hf comes with a 1/2 hp. motor. but the jet and hf have the 3/4, before I bought the lathe I did some research here on this news group and I visited both hf and a jet dealer and from what I could tell upon close examination is that jet relocated the power switch to the leg of the stand and added about 40.00 worth of extras to the 1236, but other then that it looked the same to me. another observation I made is that the 8 piece lathe tool set for 39.00 (I got mine for 29.00 on sale) is the same set I have seen at grizzly and other sites sell for 49.00. I don't normally shop at HF but I have found a few items well worth the money saved.

Some of us are old enough to remember Delta bandsaw knockoffs from Taiwan which had obviously used the Delta castings to make the molds. Everything was just a shrink away in dimension. Doubt this is the case now, but I'll bet the same castings go to several places to be finished to purchasers' specification.

If the pulley and the shaft are of dissimilar metals, shrinkage with the cold sounds probable, but that would also lead to corrosion (galvanic) problems.

"Maxprop" wrote:.(clip) As mentioned above some of the copies are virtually identical. I haven't spent enough time examining the HF lathe to tell if differences exist. ^^^^^^^^^^^^ Differences DO exist. I had a Jet 1236 fpor some time, and I ordered parts for it from HF, using the 34706 parts list. Things like faceplates and live centers fit perfectly, of course, but a on a new banjo, I had to bore out the toolpost hole slightly.