jet 1014 mini lathe - tailstock problems

worldsworstturner · 9 Apr 2013

Hi
I have a Jet 1014 mini lathe, 7 months old, you know the one, "trade rated", "years of trouble free turning". Tailstock is difficult to operate. Axminster suggest stripping down to see if tailstock spindle or lead screw are damaged. Does anyone know how to do this? I don't want to start bashing it in case I ruin the warranty. I've got as far as fully extending spindle until lead screw disengages but cant make anything budge further. You may gather I'm mechanically inept. Any advice gratefully received.

wwt

CHJ · 9 Apr 2013

Don't know the lathe myself but it is normal practise to have a location screw in the side of the tail stock casting locating in a recess groove in the tail stock barrel to prevent it from rotating and coming completely out of the front unintentionally.

If there is one have you slackened it off or removed the screw completely?
If it is not adjusted correctly in the first place it could be preventing smooth tail stock barrel operation.

jpt · 9 Apr 2013

I had the Axminster version of that lathe and if I remember correctly there is a grub screw holding the rear wheel on. If you remove this and the lever for locking the spindle in position it should all slide out of the front of the casting.

john

Neil Farrer · 9 Apr 2013

Well I don't have the lathe in question but I do have the 1416 and a small AWVSL from Axminster. I have just suffered from the same bout of years of trouble free turning on the 1416. The tailstock mechanism jammed. Easy to solve, there is a headless bolt that locks into place with a threaded 4mm hex thingy that looks like a mouse dropping - you know what I mean! take that our which is the retaining mechanism, un do the mouse dropping thingy that holds the handle mechanism and the thing with a bit of encouragement will fly forward towards the headstock. Simply clean it and give it a dab of grease and it will run so smoothly you will make it part of your six monthly maintenance schedule.

Whilst I did this I have been meaning to adapt the tailstock end of the lathe becasuse I was fed up drilling salt and pepper pots using that really stupid 8mm diameter crank handle on the back of the chrome wheel on the tailstock that was designed by some cretin. The rotational force you have to apply is neither smooth nor easy particulalry if you are drilling with a forstner into a rosewood or the like. I was in the RN so you may detect an influence in my design but this is the best thing I ever did, drilling with a 1 inch forstner is easy to do with one finger, and drilling is a pleasure not an ordeal. What I did:

Take a square of ply, mark the centre and the centre of the straight edges, drill each side towards the centre to make hole for the spokes. Put between centres, turn to a circle, and cut a recess to about 5mm to mimic the rim of the chrome wheel on the tailstock. Drill hole in this recess off the lathe to allow bolt to go where that stupid 8mm diameter 40mm thing stuck out. Turn spokes and glue in, Drill hole through centre for knock out bar, then fix wheel through drilled hole where the handle used to be. Bingo!