Jet 1642 EVS-2 motor problems

[Scott Read]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post...so greetings to all. I have been reading and absorbing what everyone has to say for a little while now. The advice has been very helpful. After reading many, many, many reviews on numerous full size lathes, I decided to buy the 2hp Jet 1642. At first, it was smooth sailing. I used it 2-3times. Then, started to notice an odd noise coming from the motor. I called the Woodcraft store where I purchased the unit and expressed my concern. The Jet tech told me to continue to run the unit. He believed the noises would go away as the unit was broken in. I decided to listen to him and continue using it.

After roughing out 3-4 more bowls over the next week(none larger than 14") the noises got worse. The piece being turned would slip if the belt was not tight, but motor noise went way up if any additional pressure was applied to the belt. In either case, the application of pressure with a gouge slowed RPMs considerably. I had my neighbor(a much more seasoned turner) take a look at it. He immediately call a friend at Woodcraft and told them there was an issue. They replaced the motor.

Now, I have had the new motor for about two weeks. I have rough turned about 6 bowls. The motor is on the fritz again. I called Woodcraft this morning. They were very concerned that I have now gone through 2 motors so they called Jet. Without hesitation, Jet said to replace this motor as well.

My assumption is that Jet knows there is an issue. They seem to have gotten a bad batch of motors. So far I am fairly impressed with their response to the problem. We shall see. I just hope that it is cleared up soon.

Sorry for the book...just thought you should all know.

Scott

 

[Roger Chandler]

Not the first to have a motor problem with a Jet

There have been posts on other forums, as well as this one about this problem. I think you are correct to think that Jet knows about this problem. Overall, Jet has a good reputation, and stands behind their products fairly well.

The SMC forum has a thread concerning this as well.

 

[Gynia]

Return the lathe (Woodcraft has a 90 day warranty). Get a lathe which has no issues. You don't need to be the guy that "helps" Jet figure it out.

What lathe? I am sure you had a short list. Go to the next one on your list.

 

[Scott Read]

Limited options

I am in complete agreement with you. Unfortunately, I am in Hawaii. The 1 Woodcraft store we have here is the only place I can even get a lathe locally. Frieght for something this heavy to the islands is terrible. As much as I hate dealing with any issues like this at all, I would rather do it with a shop I can walk into rather than strictly over the phone.

It is a tough decision...I am headed down to the shop again this weekend. I may see if they will cut me a deal on something else.

 

[Richard Coers]

I agree with returning the lathe. A machine like that may just be a lifetime ownership. Who replaces the motor in 5 years? I would think it is just a bearing problem, so replacement of just the bearings would fix it in the future. But who wants to spend that kind of money and continue to fix it? I think Woodcraft still sells Oneway.

 

[Chris Stolicky]

My first motor on the lathe went out in very short order similar to yours. I dealt directly with Jet, and they promptly replaced it. That was about 8 months ago, and no motor problems since.

Let's hope they are flushing these bad motors out of the market. The good news is that they seem to go bad fairly quickly. I haven't read that anyone has had one for a few years before this happened.

Beyond this issue, it really is a great lathe for the price.

Good luck.

 

[Scott Read]

Identical issues

I ran across a post on Sawmill Creek. The guy had the exact same issues. I was shocked. His descriptions could have just as easily been about my lathe. I am assuming that they eventually took care of the problem because he stopped posting about it.

I must admit that I am a little worried about the overall quality of the product. The bad thing is that I can't afford to dump another $1000 to make the jump to the next level.

Hoping to be problem free with this next change. I will be returning it if there are any more issues...

 

[Roger Chandler]

Seems like problems from China manufacturers

I ran across a post on Sawmill Creek. The guy had the exact same issues. I was shocked. His descriptions could have just as easily been about my lathe. I am assuming that they eventually took care of the problem because he stopped posting about it.

I must admit that I am a little worried about the overall quality of the product. The bad thing is that I can't afford to dump another $1000 to make the jump to the next level.

Hoping to be problem free with this next change. I will be returning it if there are any more issues...

Hello Scott,

It seems like the China Manufacturer [GeeTech, I believe] seem to be having quality control issues, on a number of different models including the Jet 16/42, the Laguna 18/47, and others.

They make lathes for different vendors, and from what I can tell from the posts made both here and on SMC, it seems a number of machines are going out the factory door with problems of one sort or another.

The vendors are supposed to have quality control inspectors in the factories, and I guess they are not getting the job done. I think a number of owners should voice their displeasure loud and clear, and maybe the company reps will extract a pound of flesh from those who are letting this happen.

 

[rjones]

just a quick thought, Have you checked the electrical curcit to see if there is the right power and amps. if you are trying to run it off of an extension cord it could cause the motor to over heat. Had a customer call me one time said his table saw did not have any power and wanted to return it and I ask this same question he got real quite and didn't say much after that came in later and the saw was fine.

 

[Roger Chandler]

these are motor knocking problems

just a quick thought, Have you checked the electrical curcit to see if there is the right power and amps. if you are trying to run it off of an extension cord it could cause the motor to over heat. Had a customer call me one time said his table saw did not have any power and wanted to return it and I ask this same question he got real quite and didn't say much after that came in later and the saw was fine.

These are not overheating [drawing not enough amps] problems, they are knocking in the motors as if there is some shim or some bearing issues inside the motor housing.

 

[Bob Borzelleri]

I ran across a post on Sawmill Creek. The guy had the exact same issues. I was shocked. His descriptions could have just as easily been about my lathe. I am assuming that they eventually took care of the problem because he stopped posting about it.

I must admit that I am a little worried about the overall quality of the product. The bad thing is that I can't afford to dump another $1000 to make the jump to the next level.

Hoping to be problem free with this next change. I will be returning it if there are any more issues...

Doesn't Woodcraft in Hawaii also carry Nova? If so, the DVR would be a reasonable replacement at near the same price.

 

[Scott Read]

Not power related

I am pretty familiar with electrical applications. I have worked on everything from household wiring to radar and radios for the Navy. When the first one fried I questioned the way I hooked everthing up. I was unable to run a dedicated circuit for the unit because we are currently renting the place we are in. I decided to use the 220v dryer socket. Housing code puts this at 10gauge w/ a 30A breaker...more that enough for what I am doing. I routed a 40ft piece of 10/2 to the other side of the garage into a wall socket where the lathe is located. (I would have used 12/2, but I alread had 10/2) I just unplug the dryer when I want to use the late. The 10/2 is actually overkill, but at the time I was setting up I couldn't find anything that stated the startup amps drawn. I figured better safe than sorry...

I spoke to a Jet tech this morning. He said that these motor have been in their system for about two years. I asked why they just didn't recall the motors within the batch that had issues. He had no clue. My guess is that it would have cost them more money to do the recall than to just let them filter out on there own.

 

[Roger Chandler]

your guess

I am pretty familiar with electrical applications. I have worked on everything from household wiring to radar and radios for the Navy. When the first one fried I questioned the way I hooked everthing up. I was unable to run a dedicated circuit for the unit because we are currently renting the place we are in. I decided to use the 220v dryer socket. Housing code puts this at 10gauge w/ a 30A breaker...more that enough for what I am doing. I routed a 40ft piece of 10/2 to the other side of the garage into a wall socket where the lathe is located. (I would have used 12/2, but I alread had 10/2) I just unplug the dryer when I want to use the late. The 10/2 is actually overkill, but at the time I was setting up I couldn't find anything that stated the startup amps drawn. I figured better safe than sorry...

I spoke to a Jet tech this morning. He said that these motor have been in their system for about two years. I asked why they just didn't recall the motors within the batch that had issues. He had no clue. My guess is that it would have cost them more money to do the recall than to just let them filter out on there own.

Scott,

Your last statement in your post tells the story..... it might have cost them more money, but in the end the customer is the one that is inconvenienced and frustrated, and will always have doubts about the product they purchased.

It would have been better to solve the problem before customers got the lathes. They could address the quality control and inspection issues at the manufacturing plant.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Since it is not a safety issue, and possibly no reliable means of identifying which machines might have bad motors, they are probably handling things reasonably well. Since they are aware of the problem and are not hesitant about taking care of the problem whenever it is reported, that seems to be working well. The problem does not appear to be endemic.

BTW, using an electrical extension cord would not be a significant factor in this situation. While using a very long undersized extension cord would cause a voltage drop, the magnitude of the issue is often exaggerated. Motors can withstand a considerable amount of sag in supply voltage. Since this is a three-phase motor being controlled through a variable frequency drive, even if there were a voltage drop, it would have no impact on the motor's performance. With a VFD, the singled-phase power is first converted to regulated DC voltage that is greater than the supplied AC. The regulated DC voltage source is then used to power the three-phase motor through an H-bridge switching circuit to create a synthesized approximation of three-phase AC. The synthesized voltage does not bear any physical resemblance to sinusoidal AC, but functionally, as far as the motor is concerned, it is almost the same thing.

 

[MichaelMouse]

Scott,

Your last statement in your post tells the story..... it might have cost them more money, but in the end the customer is the one that is inconvenienced and frustrated, and will always have doubts about the product they purchased.

It would have been better to solve the problem before customers got the lathes. They could address the quality control and inspection issues at the manufacturing plant.

May not be as easy as you think. If it's motors from supplier X or lot number 23XX from some other supplier, they might just pull back that manufacturer or lot, as the auto makers do. If the pool is too large and the failure rate low, more would be inconvenienced by the recall than the failure.

When the Nova 3000 variable had the problem of shaft-snapping, it was only one type of motor affected, and Woodcraft did the right thing by replacing on demand, not just on failure.

 

[Roger Chandler]

Your point is taken

May not be as easy as you think. If it's motors from supplier X or lot number 23XX from some other supplier, they might just pull back that manufacturer or lot, as the auto makers do. If the pool is too large and the failure rate low, more would be inconvenienced by the recall than the failure.

When the Nova 3000 variable had the problem of shaft-snapping, it was only one type of motor affected, and Woodcraft did the right thing by replacing on demand, not just on failure.

Hi Micheal,

I agree the inconvenience of a large scale recall would bring disruption to many owners, who potentially did not have a problem. I would like to see better quality control and inspection, where every unit is put through its paces before shipment and machining tolerances were closely watched.

I think the Chinese factories could do a better job at this is my main point, and if they would really focus on QC then most of these problems could be avoided in the first place.

 

[hockenbery]

Scott,
You aren't having any fun.

The Jet 1642 we have is an older one and has done everything it has been asked to do. It is taking a field trip this weekend to be the demonstration lathe for Spring Training for Woodturners at the Tampa Woodworking Show.

From my experience, Jet will make it right. It has taken longer than it should have. I don't think the motor issue says anything about the quality of the Jet Lathe.

The 1642 is more lathe than most people ever need.
If your ever decide to make the jump to a bigger lathe down the road you can always sell the jet for a few hundred less than the price of a new one.

At worst look for a motor with the same amps, HP, voltage, and phase.
might get a used one for $50 (Hawaii it might be $500) the Paradise tax.

Happy turning,
Al

 

[Scott Read]

Attempting to wait patiently...

Thanks Al,

You are correct. No fun to be had here right now. I am getting tired of having a clean garage. The longer it stays that way the more the wife expects it to be like that all the time. I need to get her used to a mess again...I am hoping that things will be ok in the end. I had very high hopes when I bought this lathe. The mini I used to have was a Jet so I was already partial to them.

We shall see how it plays out...In the meantime, I still have the bad motor until the new one comes. I think I am gonna see what it takes to completely kill it. It might make me feel better...lol

Scott