Jet or General 1642 lathe

[Mike Hollingsworth]

My choices come down to these two lathes due to 110v restriction.
Any opinions?
both are around $1700 to my door.

thanx
Mike

[Cecil Arnold]

If everything else is the same, I would get the heaviest one. The Jet seems to have a wider base, but I like the shut off location on the General.

[Brad Schmid]

Mike,
If I'm correct, that General is the 25-600 right? I have the 2HP version of the Jet 1642 you're looking at, so here's my take:

The only major difference I see from the specs is that the General is a 7 speed reeves drive (450-3000 rpm), the Jet is EVS. 450rpm isn't quite slow enough (IMHO) if you want to turn big, heavy, and out of round, or power sand. My Jet will go as low as 30rpm (according to the digital readout). Otherwise, they look fairly equal.

edit:oops, I think I looked at the wrong one, you're looking maybe at the 25-650 I think...
That one looks very similar to the Jet EVS. I also like the moveable shut-off.

Also, the Jet is very easy to add additional weight, I can't tell from the picture how easy that would be with the General.

cheers

[John Shuk]

If the difference is EVS vs Reeves I'd go EVS all the way. This link might help as well.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/articles/6

[Alan Tolchinsky]

If the Reeves pulley system is as noisy as the one on my Delta lathe, don't buy it. My REeves pulley makes so much noise that I wear ear protection. I'll never buy a lathe with the system again.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

Mike,
If I'm correct, that General is the 25-600 right? I have the 2HP version of the Jet 1642 you're looking at, so here's my take:

The only major difference I see from the specs is that the General is a 7 speed reeves drive (450-3000 rpm), the Jet is EVS. 450rpm isn't quite slow enough (IMHO) if you want to turn big, heavy, and out of round, or power sand. My Jet will go as low as 30rpm (according to the digital readout). Otherwise, they look fairly equal.

edit:oops, I think I looked at the wrong one, you're looking maybe at the 25-650 I think...
That one looks very similar to the Jet EVS. I also like the moveable shut-off.

Also, the Jet is very easy to add additional weight, I can't tell from the picture how easy that would be with the General.

cheers

Brad-
both the Units are electronically variable speed.
I think I'm leaning toward the General.
Though the Jet weighs in at 420 lbs, 230 of those are in the legs. That leaves the machine at 190 lbs.
The General weighs in at 370 lbs and it's stand can't weigh more than 70 lbs. By my calculations the General weighs 50% more.

Thanks for your input

Mike