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Jet mini upgrade

john lucas

AAW Forum Expert
Joined
Apr 26, 2004
Messages
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Location
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Let's have some fun. I have 2 jet mini lathes that had bad motors. Both were variable speed models. I want to modify them to improve them. One will have the single speed AC motor. I already have that and the 5 speed pulleys. I"ve made an adaptor to accept a vacuum chuck, and I'm working on a better locking clamp for the tailstock. I would like to look at some sort of indexing. New tool rest is a must since the original ones break too easily. What sort of tool rest would you design. I like an ofset one for a mini lathe. By that I mean shorter on one side than the other.
If you could modify the Jet mini what would like to see done. The second lathe that I have will have one of the Vega treadmill motors installed. I will mount it in a stand below the lathe so it won't stick out the side. I will make the lathe easily removeable so the stand can be picked up seperately for easy of transport.
Please don't get too exotic, I'd like to actually be able to add these mods to the lathes.
 
Install a tailstock swivel mount like those on the Robust lathes.

this wouold be a great addition, not because of the weight but rather the difuculty of remounting the tailstock.
I do a lot of demos on these machines. The tailstock needs to be removed often and it never slides back on in one motion.
I usually have to reach under and wiggle the clamp and have 2 or 3 tries.

This operation burns valuable seconds from the demo clock and creates great anxiety among the audience as they wonder if I will ever be able to remount the tailstock. Worse this often occurs just after I promise to turn off the bottom of a piece.

I don't think the robust folks offer this as an after market for other lathes but they should. I recently saw plan for a wooden one somewhere.

Make rube goldberg proud.
Al
 
Al Neat idea. I modified the tailstock on my Nova comet by putting a spring and a roll pin in the bottom plate. The spring pushes it down and the roll pin keeps the front part tilted out and also keeps it from rotating. On the Nova there isn't locking nut to keep if from rotating so if it rotated 1/2 turn it wouldn't lock down. By making the plate tilt it was very easy to get the tailstock on and off. I'm looking at the same sort of set up for the Jet. A longer flat plate should keep the tailstock from slipping.
I always have troublel with the tailstock locking handle falling down. this keeps the tailstock from going on so you have to try and hold the handle up. I'll have to look and see if there is a way to keep the handle up without blocking the locking action.
 
That will be a little hard to do on the non variable speed model. I never use reverse anyway. I tried it on a couple of projects because everyone says you need reverse. I could not see that it helped my sanding at all and since my chucks don't have a set screw to lock them on I decided it was safer just to not use it.
On the variable speed model it will just mean buying another switch so I'll probably put it on there even though I don't use it. You never know what the future will bring.
 
John add a roll pin.............

to the side of the tailstock. Drill a hole in the tailstock base an inch and a half +/- to the rear of the locking lever, add pin. I did this on the Club lathe and will do so again on the new one. 🙂

Sorry, I didn't explain that I did this to keep the tailstock locking lever from falling down past the level of the ways. I often get in trouble for talking faster than I'm thinking. 😱 😀
 
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Howdy John:
The Vega treadmill motor, if it's the same as my 3, is a GE motor and controller. If your's is, the motor is not reversable as far as I can determine. Reversing polarity via a switch (or manually) just won't work. Perhaps someone out there has a solution.
One more thing. The GE motor runs reverse of the original Jet motor. Therefore, it must be mounted from the end. In that case, no need to run it under the stand. I ran mine just to the left of the lathe, got an extra Jet pully and run it on the second slowest speed. You can't stop it even when running about 25 rpm.
I have a couple other issues with the modifications earlier posted and will be happy to discuss them on a private post to those interested.
Ed
 
Reversing the GE Treadmill Motor From Vega

Hi Ed & All,

I installed the GE treadmill motor from Vega on my Jet Mini too, and boy does it make a difference!

You can reverse the motor, but you have to reverse the polarity of the power to the windings, not just switch the two leads that stick out of the motor.

It's real easy to do, you just need to cut the cable ties that hold the wires to the back end of the motor to get access, then you can see the connectors that attach the wires to the windings back inside the motor. If you reverse the polarity on these, the motor reverses direction. Wire in a 3-position reversing toggle switch (RUN-STOP-RUN) to accomplish this.

😎 You should have somebody qualified to do this type of alteration to electrical circuits do it for you... BE CAREFUL!

Matt
 
Get rid of the locking plate on the tailstock. Replace with a cylinder and a square/hex rod to keep it aligned. Bingo, easy to mount tailstock.

Cut a gap bed on one of them for turning bowls and platters up to 12". The effective 9 inch swing is a bit too limited for that and the lathe can handle that swing fine for power.

Mount a mobile kill switch. Something you can hit with your hip or from out to one side of the lathe.

For a mobile setup, build a low rollcart with the lathe mounted on a swing up or reversible top. Stores lathe, tools, rolls on a pull strap and has handles on sides. Roll to where you want it, lock wheels, unlatch and rotate lathe up, drop and extend legs, go for it.

All other thoughts involve cool death rays, time machines, and helicopter rotors so I'll leave them out.

Dietrich
 
Treadmill motor?

I installed the GE treadmill motor from Vega on my Jet Mini too

Are you guys referring to a motor from an actual treadmill? Those torture machines they have at the health club? Or is this some other industry insider terminology I'm just not familar with?

I wouldn't mind adding a variable speed motor to my midi lathe. Where does one find one of these treadmill motors? And will it cost more than my lathe?
 
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Thanks Matt for the idea on reversing the motor. I think I copied plans to do that off the web somewhere but I put all that stuff with the motor and haven't looked at it in awhile.

I think a rolling cart with storage for grinder and tools would be great. I was thinking about some sort of lift up shelf to go on the left side so that I could put the grinder on that after I get the cart set up. In fact a lift up shelf on the right to hold the tools would be a good idea also.
 
Greg I bought my motor and controller from Vega wood lathes. I don't know if they still sell them. It is a motor from a treadmill. I have seen them in the surplus catalogs as well.
 
Greg,

These motor/controller sets were made specifically for treadmill-torture devices. Some mfg. of treadmills had a surplus of them and Vega bought them and they were available for a while if you called and asked which is how I got mine. It is my understanding that they are out of stock, but it wouldn't hurt to give Vega a call. I think the cost was only ~$60 plus s&h.

The only issues with using any DC motor from a treadmill is with the controller. The treadmill controller boards are built to accelerate to speed slowly and when you hit the off switch you must turn the speed down to zero before it will start again. Somebody 'hacked' the circuit board that came with these specific motors to be more suited to a lathe and made the minor changes available on the net. I have the instructions somewhere on another computer... If you can get the motor I'll find them for you!

Where there's a will there's a way. You can buy the multi-step sheave for the motor directly from Jet (Wilton, Powermatic, or whatever they call themselves now) for less than the belt. If Vega is out I'd try Ebay.

Good luck... I'll help if I can.

Matt
 
Tailstock rotator

If you want an idea for an addition to a jet. Check out the Sparticus Rottor I made for my Woodfast. I have one on The Bayou Woodturner's club Mini-jet, but I'm sandblasting it right now and can't do photos.
Go to eddiecastelin.com and look for the sparticus rotator.
 
You can make the Jet motor run backwards by swapping the position of the two start winding leads OR by swapping the position of the two run winding leads. Just don't swap both the run and the start winding leads or you will be back to where you started with the motor running forward. One side of the start winding can be identified as the winding lead that is connected to the start capacitor. If you are lucky, the other one will be connected to the centrifugal switch. Otherwise, it may be difficult to identify because it will be spliced to one of the run winding leads.

Bill
 
Captain Eddie said:
If you want an idea for an addition to a jet. Check out the Sparticus Rottor I made for my Woodfast. I have one on The Bayou Woodturner's club Mini-jet, but I'm sandblasting it right now and can't do photos.
Go to eddiecastelin.com and look for the sparticus rotator.

Eddie Great job. I've seen about 4 or 5 of these things now and it's a good idea for big lathes. It's probably overkill for the Jet mini but then this a project designed to show what can be done with a mini lathe. Thanks. John
 
Bill Thanks for the tip on reversing. My electronic skills are not that good so I always struggle when trying to figure out something like that. This will go in my motor file.
 
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