New Lathe Arrived

[Steve Schlumpf]

A few weeks ago I submitted my first post - where to find the best deal for a Jet 1642 Lathe.

A little over a week ago I ordered the lathe from 'The Tool Nut' and yesterday it arrived. Was surprised as I was supposed to get a call from the trucking company 24 hours prior to delivery in order to set up time, place, etc.

Turns out someone at the depot had loaded the lathe for delivery - before anyone knew it was there. I got a call from the truck driver stating he had the lathe but no paperwork for delivery. Talked to him for a few minutes and gave him directions to the house. About 20 minutes later he arrived and I was real happy to see that the truck had a lift!!:D Took us about 10 minutes to get the lathe off the truck (during a raging snowstorm) and placed in my garage!

Today was the first chance I had to unpack and set up the lathe. I was real happy to find out that I could carry each section by myself to the shop (located in the basement).
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Put the lathe together and checked for headstock/tailstock alignment and it was dead-on! Wired the plug, fired it up and was very impressed with how smooth everything is. Big change from the 1954 Craftsman mono-tube that I have been using.
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Hope to be able to post something for everyone's critique very soon.

PS. Can't believe how long it took me to figure out how to post this - about an hour! Guess I need more practice;)

[Pete Jordan]

Congrats Steve!

Looks like a great machine.

[Tom Sherman]

Quite a gloat Steve, should be many hours of happy turning there. Good pictures too, picture police have nothing to rag on you about.

[Corey Hallagan]

Congrats on the new lathe! Enjoy it!

Corey

[Mike Vickery]

Very nice I seriously considered getting that machine myself. Let us know how you like once you get it spinning.

[Travis Stinson]

Congrats! Looking forward to seeing your work from it. :cool:

[Bernie Weishapl]

Congrats on the lathe Steve. Hope you have many fun hours of turning.

[Dario Octaviano]

Congrats!!!

You made a great choice!!!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Congrats on the new lathe Steve! I'd sure appreciate a detailed review after you've used it for a while!

[Jim Becker]

She's a beauty!! Congratulations on your new lathe, Steve! Enjoy!

[Mark Pruitt]

Excellent gloat!!! You'll enjoy using that one for sure!

[Jim Ketron]

Congrats!
Nice lathe!

[Stephen Hibbs]

That looks like a much more solid machine than either the Delta or HF knock-offs! Looks like you'll have lots of fun on that, nice gloat.

[Christopher Hunter]

I wish I would have saved a little longer to get that one-- but hey,, at least I have one right ;) ;)

Great pick-- can't wait to see some work off it...

[Kurt Rosenzweig]

Alright!!! Great machine! Now lets see some shavings.:D

[Dick Strauss]

Congrats! I hope you enjoy that beauty!!!

[Dominic Greco]

Steve,
That's a darn purty lathe you got there!:D I'm sure you'll be very happy using it. I've had mine for about 4 years now and I'm still very happy with it's performance.

I know you're still getting it set up, but I'd like to make a suggestion. If you can take the time to add a set of trestle legs and a ballast box, you will be very impressed with the boost in your lathe's performance.

I wrote an article about adding these shop built accessories to my Jet JWL-1642 lathe that is featured here (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/articles/7/)on Sawmill Creek's Article section.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Dom,
How strange. I happened to read your article on making the ballast box for your new 1642 back when you first posted it. At that time I had no experience on a lathe at all but was very impressed with your design and also with your new lathe. I can honestly remember thinking to myself that when I got ready for a lathe - the Jet 1642 would be the one to check out.

Well now I have the lathe and I spent a couple of hours looking over old files I had on computer trying to find what you had designed. I had the pictures but no text as to why you made the extended feet, type of wood, etc. I figured I would go on-line and look you up and see if you still had the info. Wow! I just saved your article to my favorites and will be building my version of it real soon. Thanks so much!

[Frank Fusco]

Your shop is carpeted? :eek:

[Steve Schlumpf]

Frank,

My shop is located in the basement and the area with the lathe is carpeted. It's a beautiful rainbow pattern of indoor/outdoor which I am sure must have cost bunches. It was in the house when we moved in and my option was to rip it up and get rid of it or leave it and see how much a pain it would be with sawdust and wood chips. So far I actually like having it on the floor as it is a lot softer to stand on and hasn't been that much of a pain to vacuum.

[Dominic Greco]

... I figured I would go on-line and look you up and see if you still had the info. Wow! I just saved your article to my favorites and will be building my version of it real soon. Thanks so much!

No problem Steve. When you get ready to build it, and have any questions, drop me a line.