How to convert Jet mini lathe to variable speed

[John Coloccia]

Is this something that could be easily done? I'm sure someone here must have done this. Thanks much for any help.

[John Fabre]

Good question, I wanted to convert my boys Jet mini from a manual variable speed to an electronic variable speed too.

[Scott Lux]

The variable speed kit from Penn State is easy to install, http://www.pennstateind.com/store/TCLVSKIT.htmland I like it a lot. I had some problems fairly early on with it not holding speed. I took out the brushes and they were heavily scored. I filed them smooth and haven't had an ounce of trouble since.

The install took less than an hour, and I was taking my time and re-reading the instructions several times. Here's the biggest drawback: It's only 1/2 hp. Other than that it's fantastic.

[John Coloccia]

What do you end up with for a speed range? It doesn't say what you get on Penn's site. Half the reason I'd like to do this is to get a very slow low end as opposed to the 500RPM I get now.

[Scott Lux]

What do you end up with for a speed range? It doesn't say what you get on Penn's site. Half the reason I'd like to do this is to get a very slow low end as opposed to the 500RPM I get now.

They don't give you a speed range, because half of that is determined by the pulley size on your headstock. You can, if you know motors and controllers, tweak the PWM pots to get a lower speed, but then the motor will run hotter than it's supposed to. I don't know motors or controllers, but my neighbor does :) Mine was 650 - 2,800, after tweaking, it's 400 - 2,000. And I'm a little concerned about it running hot. But so far it's ok.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I haven't seen a manual Jet converted yet to VS except with PSI. Low speed is around 650 rpm. A friend of mine did the same thing Scott did by tweeking it the low end was 425 as near as he could tell but burnt up the electronics and the motor shot craps the first time. The second time he lost the board.

[John Coloccia]

Well shoot, I really want to go slower. Looks like it's time to home grow a solution. Fortunately, I do know motors and controllers :)

[Keith Westfall]

Can you use the existing pulley/ belt setup with the new motor and control? Wouldn't that give up a greater speed range?

I have an older Delta LA200 midi lathe and would love to have variable speed! However I should practice more before I get to carried away... It's more fun that one would ever expect it to be! :D

[Harvey M. Taylor]

Sell the lathe and use the money toward a variable speed one. Do you want to be a turner or electrician. Who would buy a lathe that had been tampered with, anyway? Just a thought. Max

[Dan Hintz]

John,

Have you considered ordering one of Jet's VFD/motor combos for the 1642 machine? 1.5HP is a lot of power for a midi, but it probably be easier to integrate.

[Jeff Nicol]

Get a treadmill and the controller that comes with it and use that. We found one that was free on Craigslist and all that was wrong with it was the circuit breaker had a loose wire on it so everything worked fine. My Dad put in on his drill press and now has infinite variable speed just using the preset buttons that came with the treadmill. The motors are very torguey and are DC most of the time so they are easily slowed, reversed and sped up. He does not use it at the high speeds as it is to fast for the drill press but for a lathe it would work great. The other option is to get a motor that is made for variable speed and get a controller to match, this most times is a 3 phase motor and a VFD, but there are AC 115V motors that are controlable and won't burn up. But if money is going to cost you $200 for the changeover I would just buy a Delta 46-460 and be done with it and keep the jet or sell it.

Good luck,

Jeff

[Harvey M. Taylor]

what Jeff said. Max

[Jon Prouty]

Ditto to Jeff - I sold the Jet and bought the Delta 46-460. I sold my Jet for $180 and bought the Delta for $589. For $400 I upgraded in a huge way. They Delta is awesome. You could probably sell the Jet for more, I wanted a fast easy sale.

Jon

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Keep the mini AND buy a big lathe. End all the frustrations.....

[John Coloccia]

Keep the mini AND buy a big lathe. End all the frustrations.....

Well, that's actually the plan. I'm thinking of picking up a DVR, but I'd like to setup the mini to just do small items like pens and also for very low speed turning for finish work (you can turn outboard on the mini, believe it or not). If there was a simple way to do it, I'd do it. Simplest may just be to mount a motor with a gear reduction off board somewhere, and drive it like that. I definitely don't want anything I do to actually speed up the lathe on the low end. 500RPM is already way too fast, especially for such a small lathe.

[Rob Cunningham]

I found a free treadmill on Craigslist and used the motor and controller board on my lathe.
On the largest headstock pulley, I go from 0 - 2000 rpm, the next pulley is 0 - 3700 rpm. It seems to have plenty of power and was not that hard to convert the lathe.
However this would be a good excuse to get a new lathe.:)

[Kyle Iwamoto]

[QUOTE=John Coloccia;1589105](you can turn outboard on the mini, believe it or not) QUOTE]

How do you turn outboard? Not that I need to do it. Just curious. I have a "big" lathe, so turning 11 inch items is done on that. I still use my mini to turn boxes, since I'm more comfortable using the mini. And it uses less electricity. Did you follow the recent sanding speed thread? It appears that a lot of folks sand at high speed.....

[Scott Lux]

I really like the treadmill option. Next go-round I'll go that route.