New Jet Lathe Junk?

J

JerseyBill

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I bought a new lathe two months ago. A Jet 1440 belt drive. I thought it was great and I had a machinist friend come over the shop and he took one look and said it's junk?? He said to get a good one that will last it cost much much more than the 3700 I paid. Probably 30 grand or something like that. Is that true? How much is the best one a normal person can afford and which brand and style is it?
thanks, Bill
 
i'd say most every machinist who comes from an oldschool american machinery background would say that about most any import lathe. You probably have one of the best brands you can get for the budget and scope of work involved.

Just be glad you didnt have a deluxe or a harbor freight sitting there...hate to see what he would have had to say about those:eek:
 
Hi,

I think your friend is full of hot air or does not understand that the tolerances of that lathe is fine for cue making. Maybe he is a tool and die guy that deals in tenths of thousands or something very accurate.

The Jet lathes are pretty good. They are better than Enco stuff. I have an Enco and I love it for my cue making jobs dedicated to that lathe. I have a six jaw on my Enco and have ground the jaws so that my run out is less than .001 total.

I don't like the belt drive myself as I change my speeds all the time. There are a lot of people that do like a belt drive.

Rick G
 
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JerseyBill said:
.... He said to get a good one that will last it cost much much more than the 3700 I paid. Probably 30 grand or something like that. Is that true? ...
Click to expand...

Sounds like your friend want you to get one of these :

http://www.lathes.co.uk/hardinge/index.html

http://www.hardinge.com/usr/pdf/turning/1332A_HLV.pdf

But they are a little small for cuemaking I would think ( 9" x 18" ) .... and a little heavy for most of us (2200 lbs for an HLV, while my Taiwanese 10" x 24" is about 500 lbs :eek:).

Dave
 
harbor freight

LGSM3 said:
i'd say most every machinist who comes from an oldschool american machinery background would say that about most any import lathe. You probably have one of the best brands you can get for the budget and scope of work involved.

Just be glad you didnt have a deluxe or a harbor freight sitting there...hate to see what he would have had to say about those:eek:
Click to expand...

I actually have one of those too. He did comment on it, but I figured for what I'm doing it must be good because all the cuemakers use them.
thanks, Bill
 
Haringe lathe

DaveK said:
Sounds like your friend want you to get one of these :

http://www.lathes.co.uk/hardinge/index.html

http://www.hardinge.com/usr/pdf/turning/1332A_HLV.pdf

But they are a little small for cuemaking I would think ( 9" x 18" ) .... and a little heavy for most of us (2200 lbs for an HLV, while my Taiwanese 10" x 24" is about 500 lbs :eek:).

Dave
Click to expand...

Yes, he actually mentioned Hardinge as one of his choices.
He is a machinist type and is technically proficient in all areas.
 
belt drive

scdiveteam said:
Hi,

I think your friend is full of hot air or done not understand that the tolerances of that lathe is fine for cue making. Maybe he is a tool and die guy that deals in tenths of thousands or something very accurate.

The Jet lathes are pretty good. They are better than Enco stuff. I have an Enco and I love it for my cue making jobs dedicated to that lathe. I have a six jaw on my Enco and have ground the jaws so that my run out is less than .001 total.

I don't like the belt drive myself as I change my speeds all the time. There are a lot of people that do like a belt drive.

Rick G
Click to expand...

I was advised by a top cuemaker to buy a belt drive so I did. He had a few reasons.
 
As long as your 1440 is set up properly and leveled you should get years of cue building fun from it.
No offense to your friend or machinists in general but they think with a different mind than cue builders. Good for them.....most of the time bad for us. They always want to over engineer every thing they see and touch. Most just don't understand the wood cutting end of our chores. They all think that if the machine isn't built to hog off .500 deep cuts of hardened steel and hold a tolerance of .0000000000000025 after doing it the thing is junk.
I once asked a machinist friend about cutting threads and got a 3 hr lecture about nothing that pertained to the question I asked and was told I need to get the "Machinists Handbook" and study it from cover to cover so I could understand how to build cues. I told him I don't need the book...that's why I have you as a friend. Needless to say, now I only ask questions about cutting metal if I'm building a fixture and get stuck and then I usually cringe a few times when I'm getting those answers. He has helped me out numerous times but it's always a painful event to get a straight answer.
There have been a few machinists adapt to building cues and done it very well...but not without trying to over engineer how to stir epoxy.
 
High end lathes

JerseyBill said:
I bought a new lathe two months ago. A Jet 1440 belt drive. I thought it was great and I had a machinist friend come over the shop and he took one look and said it's junk?? He said to get a good one that will last it cost much much more than the 3700 I paid. Probably 30 grand or something like that. Is that true? How much is the best one a normal person can afford and which brand and style is it?
thanks, Bill
Click to expand...

There are alot of high end precision lathes out there. But for cuemaking the jet is good enough.
I think the main difference with high end stuf is the longevity and repeatable precision.
Not many are prepared to spend upto 50K on a manual machine for a machineshop let alone to make cues.
However if you do come across a long bed hardinge, even if it is so called worn out to a Toolmaker, it will still be more than good enough for cue making.
 
You have a good lathe you do not need a high end lathe . A jet is what I would buy and I run a 200,000 puma cnc lathe at work
 
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