I got this in an email from a member of my turning club. Mini lathe owners might be interested. I do know that VS is a wonderful addition to a lathe.
I can't vouch for the vendor but it may be worth looking into. I have no connection to this company.
Hope this helps some of you.


For all you guys with belt mini lathes there’s a guy on EBAY who is selling brand new in-the-box variable speed retro kits from JET. I bought one for $88.90 delivered in 5 days. Although all the packaging and instructions are for the JET mini, I’ve personally got a Penn State Turncrafter Pro. Had to drill one hole in the casting to move the tension release knob up a bit. I’ve been using it for about a week- very nice.

If you’re interested, go to EBAY and key in “JET Variable Speed Retro Kit For Mini Lathe” and you’ll find the auction. I talked to sales at the company- apparently they keep an actual auction going that has no reserve and they take whatever they get. But you can also “buy it now” for 79.95 and $8.95 shipping.

If you want to talk to the company here’s their info:

Equipment Sales and Surplus Inc.
1801 W Valley Hwy N #105
Auburn Wa. 98001
P 253-804-3211
F 253-804-8500
Equipmentsalesandsurplus.com

As far as I’ve been able to tell no one else- even JET is selling this kit. So I don’t know exactly what the story is, but the unit I got works great.