Jet 1236 lathe A good starter?

[Garrett Ellis]

I have the Harbor Freight clone and it does fine for ornaments, small bowls and such. The belts are around 5$ at the local Mom and Pop hardware store. I did do the speed modification to slow it one notch. Its a pretty nice starter lathe. I have no idea what stores are near you but if you can do some price comparison. If you are like a lot of folks here the turning will get addictive and you will want a better one down the road. One plus your machinist background will help making your own turning tools )

Sorry to hijack, but Kevin can you elaborate (or point to another thread/source) about the 'speed modification'?? I'm thinking about getting this HF lathe as a starter lathe and one of the downsides is the slowest speed is still 600 rpm...

[John Keeton]

Garrett - try this - http://www.chrisbillman.com/Projects/LatheSpeed.htm

[Doug W Swanson]

I did the speed mod that John posted on my 1236. It was easy to do and well worth the time it took to do it....

[Kevin Lucas]

Garrett,

I had to hunt the mod up again I lost my bookmarks. http://www.chrisbillman.com/Projects/LatheSpeed.htm

I did it a bit differently since I could not drill the hole with the bits I had. Instead I turned it to the lowest speed and then shut it off. I then removed the shaft and replaced it a spline or 2 forward then turned it on again and checked to see where it come back and lock in the first position. There was some slack in the top pulley so at the slowest I could set it the belt fit snug. A few tries and the fit and the lock pin worked out fine. It probably knocked it down half of one notches rpms so I would say from 600 to the 400 450 area.

[BILL DONAHUE]

I would think that the Jet Mini is a better first lathe because when, or if, you decide to move up you'll keep it in addition to the larger one. Most turners I know have two lathes, a mini and a large one. I don't see a lot of turners with just one mid-sized lathe. You are smart in looking a used lathes because if you buy well you won't lose anything if you sell.