I have a Jet 1440GPW. The lathe itself works well and is accurate but I don't like the fact that Jet doesn't manufacture the lathes, they just buy them and slap their name on them. The lathe I have was bought new in '96 and almost all the parts are out of stock on it and Jet has no way to get replacement parts.
I got it for free with a building I purchased but have over $1000 in replacement parts and a lot of elbow grease to get it running again.
If I had it to do over again I'd have looked around for an older american made machine.
I've got a 13X40 gear head version Toddy. It has served me well in the few months I've had it. It's been perfect for me, home shop/part time fab work. I've got 1300 in it and it's appx. 5-6 years old, I can't rember the build date. I researched alittle and would like to upgrade to a bigger bed lathe someday, but this has treated me well thusfar. My only complaint is the heavy/sturdiness of the machine. You just don't have the same feeling on it as you do the old iron.
Since you are in TN I would suggest spending that money on some older US iron.
The quality will pay for itself. I would rather run a 50 year old belt driven WWII lathe with an ancient rocker style tool holder than use a Jet lathe.
I want RIDGID when I machine steel.
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