Jet lathe

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message news:basne.880$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...

Why not let it be bought by someone who would actually want it and value it for what it is? There are many home machinists on this NG who don't have big tooling budgets and would really appreciate being able to get a decent lathe, even a "cheap" Taiwanese or Chinese Jet lathe.

Just a thought.

- Michael

metalworking

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Otto

If there's someone there that wants it, he'll outbid me. However if somebody is going to steal it, it might as well be me Over the years, I've paid for my time a sittin' at the auction all day by being prepared to purchase whatever is being given away that day. You got to know your values ahead of time, so far I haven't found anything about this model lathe.

Now, I do wish I had been smart enough to buy up ford utility tractors and equipment. For years, the scrap metal guy bought these. Today, a junky 8N brings 4K if you paint it.

Karl

That's probably where it'll end up. They can get it at the auction, or later from Karl.

My impression is that Jet is a cut above most of the asian import stuff in quality and in price.

My thought in response to this is that it is unreasonable to expect something for nothing. Karl has done his homework and leg work to find that auction, and he will, hopefully, reap the benefits.

If you want to get something cheaply, it would only be fair to expect that you should do your own homework.

My own lathe cost me 850-(1800+970)+50 dollars, or -1870 dollars (I bought a lathe and a mill and sold the mill at a profit). Why? Because I did my homework and legwork.

Karl will likely sell this lathe to exactly the kind of person whom you have in mind, at a fair price.

The old Taiwan Jets seem to be pretty good machines. Certainly better than the current crop.

Check the ways. The 10 x 24 Jet we had didn't have hardened ways and wore pretty bad, especially near the headstock. It also had a bad chatter when parting, mostly because it was too light in the carriage and cross slide. I later bought a 12 x 36 Shun Shin lathe, also Taiwanese, and it was a much nicer machine. Its only flaw was the use of a single key between the drive gear and spindle, and it wore somewhat and would clunk on startup. The geared head was handy, as was the Camlock spindle.

Dan

Well, Jet model numbers tend to indicate size. 1024 is a 10x24, 1340 is a 13x40. But they never made a 6x19 that I know of. But almost any Chinese metal lathe bigger than 9x20 will fetch over $1000, and Jets tend to bring a little more than some. If it's a 9x19 or 9x20 some will still pay $600, even though they can be had new for that.