1. Home
  2. Woodturning Crafts
  3. semi-review of the Jet 1442 VSK

semi-review of the Jet 1442 VSK

In case anyone is interested, here's MHO of my new lathe..

The jet mini died last week and since it was going to be in the shop a while, I started shopping for lathes... kind of settled on the 14" Delta for $650..

My wife got involved and asked if it was the only 14" that looked good... I told her that the Jet was the other one that I had considered, but that I couldn't see what made the Jet worth $200 more..

She got on the web and researched... and did something that I do for small electronics and should have done... READ THE REVIEWS.. (yep, she's way smarter than I am)

The Delta reviews were mostly bad, involving bent pulleys, hand wheels coming off, bearings seizing, etc... (my dealer says that theses problems have all been corrected)

The Jet reviews were amazingly good.. like they were aid ads... folks loved them, have little or no problems, and very few complaints... the wife said "spend the extra $200 and get the one that has the good reviews"... "yes, mam!

The price out the door was $917, which includes the legs... the lathe is 200 pounds, the legs another 160+, so eat your wheaties before unloading it.... I bought their floor model, being impatient and not wanting to wait for one to come in, so it came fully assembled... they put it on my truck with a fork lift, of course.. Got home and took the head and tail stock off, as well as the tool rest... that lightened it up quite a bit... Got my wife and 2 neighbors to help get the beast off the truck and set up.. it takes up a LOT more of the gra.. shop that the mini did!! (about 3 1/2' longer)

The alignment after putting the head and tail stock back on was as close to perfect as I would hope for: I swiveled the head stock around a bit and then locked it on the detent, slit the tail stock over and they matched up like it had never been swiveled..

The lathe seems powerful after the mini, and the 12" tool rest is way big for bowls... gotta get a new set of rests, since the post is bigger on the 1442.. It walked around when I put an out of balance log on it for a test... but only in a straight line, following the slope of the garage floor... a shelf with a couple of hundred pounds of logs made it walk less..

Variable speed is handy... the control is sort of in the way at times, but no setup is perfect..

Spindle Lock.. WONFERFUL! Why doesn't the mini have one?

Motor and pulleys are very quiet.. maybe twice the sound level of the mini and still quiet enough for me to forget it's running and walk away from it..

I like the power switch on the head stock, as opposed to the tail stock end as on the mini.. maybe it just makes sense to have it there, or it's my 20+ years on a shopsmith, but I naturally reach towards a motor when reaching for a switch..

2 minor complaints:

As mentioned here a while ago, the motor is mounted in a very strange place, next to the head stock with the fan end in the perfect position to suck in shavings and sanding dust, and sticking out almost as far as a face plate would... weird...

It's nice to have VS, a spindle lock and a swiveling head stock, but when you put the controls for these, plus the power switch, it gets pretty crowded in a 9 or 10" square area... the power switch can be hard to find in a hurry when the speed handle is in one of the slower positions... not a good safety feature in MHO.. Note: Being left handed and finding the controls crowded, they must really be fun for right handers...

Over all, it's a lot of lathe for the money and is probably the largest that a home hobby-type would get, considering the prices.. going to 16" adds $1,000 to the tag..

Oh.. it also has a bunch of indexing holes on the spindle... I haven't got a clue what they're for and the manual doesn't say, so the indexing screw is in my face plate drawer, but this might be a feature that folks look for..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Reply to
mac davis
Loading thread data ...

Yeah, the one horse on the Nova may slip the belt a bit, but doesn't stall.

formatting link
on the rest. Optimum seems it would be 8" ona 16" swing for outside. I have no problem with the 12 on the Nova, thoughI never used anything but the six on the 12" Delta. That and a curved rest.You can get posts only if you got your rests from them in the first place.Hand spin and trim will do more for you and the machine than a heap ofweight. The piece remains as out of balance and prone to depart as if themachine were unrestrained. Variable speed is something that only confuses us Polacks.

Had a hex on the other end of Old Blue's shaft, so never really used the spindle lock. Of course, I was prone to using inertia. PITA on the Nova, because I forget to take it off.

After a dozen years in jets I couldn't hear a freight train at twelve paces.

I want my power switch where I don't have to reach anywhere near a spinning lump to turn the machine on or off. Scares me. Move it and learn a new habit.

You're going to be pushing the size the limit for a while, aren't you? I know I did. Enjoy.

Reply to
George

yeah, I would have trimmed it round and squared the ends normally, but I wanted to see what it would do at about max diameter..

I guess it's another hold over from the shopsmith, but I kind of like not having to stop the lathe, change the belt position, etc... just spoiled, I guess.. *g*

You can't leave this on, afaik.. I use the chuck screw a lot and when I'm threading the screw into the bowl blank, I have to hold the lock in or not turn the spindle.. seems to spring out when the spindle moves at all..

Yeah... I was thinking of putting in a remote switch, like on the router table... with a BIG lever... I might put it on the table that I lay the chisels on..

of course, George! since i skipped the 12" one, I have to have some reason to wish that I had a

16", right?

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Reply to
mac davis

Mac: I have had one of these for about two years and love it. I use it as a general woodshop tool and it has served me well. This was my first lathe and it has been a good teacher. The only problem I have had is a sticky speed control. At JETs advice I disassembled it, cleaned it out and lightly burnished the pin. Seems to work fine now.

Someone mentioned JET noise and this certainly hasn't been a problem for me. Unloaded you can hardly hear it run. Loaded noise depends on what I have mounted but mostly air noise until I start cutting.

Have fun with it.

RonB

Reply to
RonB

I read several reviews that said that the speed control loosened up with a little use.. I guess not, since yours is a couple of years old... I guess that after cranking the shopsmith speed dial, this is heaven, so it doesn't bother me.. I have noticed that if, when going from lowest speed (where it seems to stick a bit) that if I pull the handle up (unlock) and then put a little pressure towards slow, it comes up very smoothly...

The 1442 is louder than the Mini, but at 800 rpm, the wind noise of the talon chuck is almost as loud as the motor... and compared to the shopsmith or most of my sanders, this lathe is damn near silent.. lol

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Reply to
mac davis

I have had a Jet 1442 for about two years now and been very well pleased. I my opinion it is the best lathe in it's price range. There was originally a little problem with the speed control but with use it went away. I try to turn somethig everyday, large bowles to garden dibbles, so it gets a lot of use and I have had no problems. My first lathe was Delta 1440, it was pretty bad, not even in the same ballpark as the Jet. If I upgrade it will probably be PowerMatic 3520. Enjoy your new lathe..

LB

Reply to
Q47M

thanks, LB... you reinforced my (ok, my wife's) decision to pass on the Delta and pay the extra $200 for the Jet..

So far I've turned about a dozen bowls on it and I'm lovin' it..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Reply to
mac davis

InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.