Jet 1221 VS Review?

[Stan Smith]

Mine arrived via UPS last night. It's still in the box and I'm going to check out the condition today. I have a 1014 and 1014vs so I'm okay with the quality of Jet. Thanks, Jeff, for your comments on the hole pattern. I'm going to build my own stand with a formica top. I was already planning on marking the mounting holes directly from the lathe. I was happy with my 1014vs until I struggled a little with the length of some tool handles I made. I also want to make some items that are a little bigger. Using a drill chuck in the 1014 tail stock really cuts down on the available stock length, too.

Even though I've done some turning over the years (mostly pens and small vases), I still consider myself somewhat of a rookie. So, I'm not much help in providing info to Dan. I was considering a Nova Comet II, but went with the 1221vs because of the larger size and hp. I really like the vs feature a lot better than moving belts all the time. Due to my small shop space, I can't fit a full size lathe in it. Now, I have to sell my 2 1014's.

Update: Got it out of the box and styrofoam. Didn't see any damage. Amazon sent it via UPS and I was a little worried after reading some customer reviews. I was very careful unpacking it. All parts seem to be there. I plugged it in and motor works fine. It wasn't quiet though, but maybe that's because it's still sitting on the plastic on the garage floor. Man, the vs is really nice! The outside bottom measurements are L= 30 1'/4" x W= 9". There was an added sheet for the hole pattern, p.8 of the manual. It shows the length between holes as 29 3/4" and the width of 8 3/16". Note that this is different from the manual. I'm going to do my own measuring though. I had a little trouble finding the mounting holes. They are tapped directly into the frame. I have to say I'm really happy with my purchase so far and am thankful that it arrived okay. As soon as I saw the UPS truck, I ran out there to make sure it was unloaded safely. The driver knew how to unload it gently though and hand-trucked into the garage for me. Okay, time to get busy to design and build the stand. Oh yeah, another Dan, suggested to set the lathe back a little from the from edge of the stand to avoid accidentally hitting the flip switch.