VS mini lathe - shopmade version

[Carol Reed]

I know some of you converted your Jet mini lathe to variable speed with the Vega motor deal of several years ago. Most of the posts that appeared then no longer have access to the pictures.

So if you have done this, and are willing, could we PM back and forth? I have some questions, as I am now getting around to doing this. And pictures answer an awful lot of questions, some of which I am too uninformed to know I should ask.

[Jerry Allen]

Penn State has a conversion kit for $99.95. PSI part # TCLVSKIT.

I have both Jet Minis. EVS and regular. Although the EVS is nice to use for sanding, it is really gutless for turning, and tends to stall when roughing out. I prefer the non-EVS for roughing. So you might want to think about it first. I recently got an odl Jet 1236 with a Reeves drive and although it is noiser and 60" long, I really like it much better. I can slide the tail out of the way without removing it, the power is better, and I like the Reeves drive for making quick speed changes without power loss.
I bought it (fairly cheap) to see if I would like a bigger lathe, and I do, so now I'm going to get a 1442. A Jet 1642 is just more than I need, but with the 1642's EVS motor you get decent torque at low speeds.