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Jet Lathe head stock oil fill hole location?
- Thread starter Rod MI
- Start date
- Replies 5
- Views 1,037
TeachMePlease
Diamond
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2014
- Location
- FL
They figure the motor will die before it ever needs lubrication...
Naw….they come as a kit...your supposed to finish the machining by drilling and tapping one on top.
Before the subject gets locked, after working on something similar a couple years back, oil fill....or maybe it was the drain(?) was aft of the chuck, under the sheet metal paneling - for some reason best known to the Chinese - you might look there! 
jermfab
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2013
- Location
- atlanta, ga
I’m not familiar with that exact model, but against my advice, a guy I know bought a Jet 1340 recently. His came with the DRO mounted and a rubber headstock cover. The oil fill is under the cover. On his machine removing the molded rubber cover required also removing the factory-mounted DRO. Once all that is done you’ll find a plug that blocks a hole that’s just too small for your smallest funnel. I believe he wound up trimming the piece of rubber to clear the mount for the DRO.
If your machine is anything like the one my acquaintance has, go ahead and get very comfortable with the whole process as you’ll be doing it regularly. His machine leaks oil like a sieve... it’s entirely possible they didn’t even install oil seals. If there are seals installed they... don’t do very much at all. Thankfully the QCGB seems to hold oil better than the headstock.
Additionally, if you plan on using the machine for any sort of real tapping operations, prepare to be unimpressed there as well. The tail stock turret lacks any provision to actually hold the drive-tang on an MT3 shank. Probably best to go ahead and get yourself an MT3 reamer to touch up the ram and stay away from reputable, American-made MT3 shanks as they’ll surely be harder than the Chinesium tail stock turret and you’ll run out of material to ream quickly. Whatever chuck Jet put in the box with the machine likely will barely hold a drill, may bend or break if you drop it, but probably isn’t so hard to wear out the quill.
Don’t expect the three-jaw chuck Jet provides to grab anything in its range concentrically and expect have to indicate every part, every time if you use their four-jaw as it will not ever repeat. Don’t expect to ever get the removable gap back in either.
Despite all this, my acquaintance is reasonably happy with the purchase, despite its many limitations. He wanted something new... and he got it. He doesn’t mind that it only looks like a big-boy machine. I don’t think he even owns a precision level, so he doesn’t even know if the bed is twisted. It doesn’t bother him that it uses oil like a worn out BSA 650, or that any part of the machine you’re likely to touch regularly is knife-sharp and just waiting to cut you. It was shiny and brand new when he got it and will likely make three or four more new Jet lathes before any decent American post-war machine even needs re-scraping.
I’m fully aware that my “little” Clausing 1300 isn’t held in high esteem by many members of this community. All the same it’s more than accurate enough for me and weighs easily double what the Jet does. The bed casting is wider and thicker and the $6500 less I spent on it left a lot of budget for tooling.
Chances are this post will be locked. Best of luck with your lathe all the same. Use it, enjoy it as best you can and hopefully the experience is good enough to convince you to keep at it with a better machine whenever you wear the Jet out.
Be safe and stay healthy
Jeremy
If your machine is anything like the one my acquaintance has, go ahead and get very comfortable with the whole process as you’ll be doing it regularly. His machine leaks oil like a sieve... it’s entirely possible they didn’t even install oil seals. If there are seals installed they... don’t do very much at all. Thankfully the QCGB seems to hold oil better than the headstock.
Additionally, if you plan on using the machine for any sort of real tapping operations, prepare to be unimpressed there as well. The tail stock turret lacks any provision to actually hold the drive-tang on an MT3 shank. Probably best to go ahead and get yourself an MT3 reamer to touch up the ram and stay away from reputable, American-made MT3 shanks as they’ll surely be harder than the Chinesium tail stock turret and you’ll run out of material to ream quickly. Whatever chuck Jet put in the box with the machine likely will barely hold a drill, may bend or break if you drop it, but probably isn’t so hard to wear out the quill.
Don’t expect the three-jaw chuck Jet provides to grab anything in its range concentrically and expect have to indicate every part, every time if you use their four-jaw as it will not ever repeat. Don’t expect to ever get the removable gap back in either.
Despite all this, my acquaintance is reasonably happy with the purchase, despite its many limitations. He wanted something new... and he got it. He doesn’t mind that it only looks like a big-boy machine. I don’t think he even owns a precision level, so he doesn’t even know if the bed is twisted. It doesn’t bother him that it uses oil like a worn out BSA 650, or that any part of the machine you’re likely to touch regularly is knife-sharp and just waiting to cut you. It was shiny and brand new when he got it and will likely make three or four more new Jet lathes before any decent American post-war machine even needs re-scraping.
I’m fully aware that my “little” Clausing 1300 isn’t held in high esteem by many members of this community. All the same it’s more than accurate enough for me and weighs easily double what the Jet does. The bed casting is wider and thicker and the $6500 less I spent on it left a lot of budget for tooling.
Chances are this post will be locked. Best of luck with your lathe all the same. Use it, enjoy it as best you can and hopefully the experience is good enough to convince you to keep at it with a better machine whenever you wear the Jet out.
Be safe and stay healthy
Jeremy
Ries
Diamond
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2004
- Location
- Edison Washington USA
Jet sourced from different factories over the years- but here is the current manual.
https://content.jettools.com/assets/manuals/321357A_man_EN.pdf
"Fill by pulling pluglocated on top of the headstock cover,underneath the rubber mat."
https://content.jettools.com/assets/manuals/321357A_man_EN.pdf
"Fill by pulling pluglocated on top of the headstock cover,underneath the rubber mat."
