I want this review to be helpful to all who may read it so I have divided my comments into four sections, 1) My motivation for purchasing the Jet 1442, 2) My experience with the packing and shipping of this heavy machine, 3) My thoughts on the assembly of the Jet 1442, and 4) My experience using the Jet 1442.

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My Motivation for Purchasing the Jet 1442

I have been looking for a heavy duty lathe for quite a while. I was looking for a lathe that was powerful enough to swing large diameter spindle and bowl blanks. I wanted a machine that was heavy enough so blanks that were severely out of round or blanks of uneven density would not cause the lathe to vibrate excessively. I didn't want a lathe that required 2 or 3 hundred pounds of sand bag ballast added to the lower shelf just to make it stable. It doesn't make sense to me to purchase an expensive machine and then have to add unsightly ballast just to make it useable.

I was looking for a lathe with variable speed motor so I could rough out large diameter, rough cut, unbalanced blanks at low speeds and still turn smaller diameter blanks at higher speeds. I was also looking for a lathe with a motor that had enough power so it would not bog down when cutting at the lower speeds.

After reading quite a bit of literature on the subject I decided limit my search to lathes with motors of 1 hp or greater and to ignore the many lathes on the market equipped with 1/2 hp or 3/4 hp motors.

I wanted a machine that had a wide footprint for stability and was heavy enough to dampen vibration when turning uneven stock. Therefore I limited my search by not considering any lathes with light weight stamped steel stands, and I focused my attention on machines with a heavy cast iron bed and heavy cast iron legs.

I also wanted a lathe whose headstock could slide the length of the bed and could rotate through 180 degrees for turning bowls off the edge of the bed so I did not consider any lathes with fixed headstocks.

Other criterion that was important to me was a machine with a large distance between centers so I could turn long spindles. I also wanted a machine that could be wired for either 110 or 220 volts.

My search eventually led me to the Jet 1442. The Jet 1442 met all of the specifications I was looking for. It has a 1 hp motor, a sliding and rotating headstock, a sturdy tail stock, a continuous cast iron bed and a pair of heavy cast iron legs. The headstock, tailstock, tool rest, and bed weigh in at 200 pounds and the legs add another 160 pounds for a total machine weight of 360 pounds, so it can absorb a great deal of vibration. It has a variable speed motor that can be adjusted in 8 steps through a range of 450 to 3000 RPM. It can swing a 14 inch blank over the bed and a 10 inch blank over the tool rest. The user manual claims it can handle up to 42 inch long blanks. According to the literature you can also purchase a 20 inch bed extension, or a 57 inch bed extension with legs. This gave me a greater sense of security knowing that I would not be locked into a 42 inch bed should I ever need to turn longer spindles. So it gives me room for growth.

The Jet 1442 comes pre-wired for 110 volts but it can be re-wired for 220 volt operation. I also liked the fact that both the headstock and tailstock used MT-2 taper centers, and that the tail stock center travel was specified to be 4 inches.

I first saw the jet 1442 in the showroom of the local Quality Woodworking store and I was very impressed. It was a great deal more massive machine than pictures on the internet would suggest. I left the show room with a fairly high interest in this machine. My interest was tweaked further when Amazon.com began offering the 1442 on sale, with free shipping, coupled with a $25.00 off promotion. My interest was heightened even further after reading all of the very positive 4 star and 5 star reviews on the Amazon website by people who had recently purchased this machine. I finally made the decision to buy this bad boy after I checked my back issues of American Woodworker and found a product comparison article for lathes in the January 2003 edition (pages 88-97). In this comparison a total of 18 lathes were tested and American Woodworker awarded the 1442 the Editors choice award for lathes in the $800 to $1,350 price range. This article featured several of the 1442 attributes, which proved to be very informative and helped me to better understand the quality of the machine.

In all my pre buy research, I did not come across a single negative associated with this lathe, so I took the leap and purchased it. As an added bonus, the price I paid through Amazon was $209 cheaper than what I would have paid had I purchased the showroom machine. After I purchased the lathe the price through Amazon was raised by $157.51 so by placing my order when I did I actually saved $366.51. Every so often a good deal comes our way. In this case, this was my good deal.

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My Experience with Packing and Shipping

The packing for this heavy machine was excellent. The tool rest, headstock and tailstock came attached to the lathe bed. The entire lathe assembly was wrapped in a very thick plastic cover and packed in one carton. The carton consisted of a well built wooden pallet with a hardwood moisture proofed bed on top. The lathe bed was bolted to the moisture proof bed. The pallet was surrounded by heavy gauge cardboard. Extra thick cardboard stiffeners were added to the inside of the package and then the box was banded to the pallet with two steel bands. The carton was marked as being 215 pounds gross weight. The stiffeners were about 3/4 inch thick. They were so sturdy I decided to keep them and use them as protective pads for the top of my work bench.

The two legs were shipped in a separate heavy card board carton. They were each embedded in thick molded Styrofoam and packaged one on top of the other. This carton was marked as being 160 pounds gross weight.

The delivery truck had a lift gate and a hand operated battery powered forklift. The driver unloaded both cartons and wheeled them into my shop. Because the lathe reached my door step in perfect condition, and since this was the best delivery service I had ever experienced with heavy tools of this type, I gave the driver a big tip, and it was worth it. I have included photos of the packaging in the "User Supplied Pictures" section below Amazon's picture of the lathe

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My Thoughts on the Assembly of the Jet 1442

This lathe is a very heavy piece of machinery. If you buy this big boy I strongly suggest you have the help of one other person to assemble it. In my case, I just couldn't wait for another person so I did all the assembly myself. The assembly itself is very simple. There are only 8 bolts and 4 adjustable feet to install. What makes it difficult is the extreme weight of the lathe. There are a couple of tricks I used to get around the weight issue.

First I opened the carton that contained the legs. I turned it on end so the legs were standing vertical, and then pulled each leg out by rocking it forward and out of the carton. The legs are balanced enough to stand on their own so I left them standing on the side of the shop. I then removed the cardboard sides from the lathe carton, which gave me room to remove the tail stock, the tool rest and the head stock from the lathe bed. I then removed the lag bolts that held the bed to the shipping pallet.

Some time ago I built a heavy duty roll around that as luck would have it, was about 2 1/2 inches higher than the legs of the lathe. I lifted the lathe bed up onto the roll around and used it to roll the bed to the area of the shop where the lathe was to be located. I then added the adjustable feet to the legs and teeter-walked them into position beneath the lathe bed.

I placed scraps of wood under the legs to raise them up by about 2 1/2 inches until they mated with the lathe bed. I then bolted the legs to the lathe bed, and removed the roll around. I used two levels placed on the lathe bed, at 90 degrees to one another, and a hydraulic floor jack to raise first one end of the lathe then the other to adjust the feet for level. The floor jack made this leveling operation fast and easy.

I used mineral spirits to clean all the machined cast iron areas of the bed, head stock, tail stock and tool rest, and then I applied a light coat of Johnson and Johnson paste floor wax to keep these areas from rusting.

I then attached the very heavy headstock, the tool rest and the tailstock, plugged it in and verified it worked. Tomorrow morning my back will tell me if I should have had the help of a second person.

After I installed the drive center and spur center I moved the tail stock as close to the head stock as possible until the centers were almost touching one another. I had hoped that the center pins of the two centers would line up perfectly but they did not. The two were misaligned by about a 1/16th inch. I'm not sure how to adjust this and right now I'm not even sure if an adjustment is called for. I think I will seek out more experienced opinions before I do anything.

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My Experience Using the Jet 1442

My first use of this lathe was to turn a 5 1/2 inch diameter, 35 inch long fluted column with 6 1/4 inch pommels at both ends out of a glued up poplar blank.

After the column was turned I wanted to be able cut the column in half lengthwise to produce two identical half columns. To accomplish this I needed to make the blank so it was easily separable lengthwise into halves. I milled down 4 pieces of poplar stock so that all were of identical size. I then made two glue ups, each consisting two pieces of stock, to form the two halves of the blank. I then glued the two blank halves together with a piece of heavy brown wrapping paper in between the two. The brown paper created a "weak" joint that could be easily split with a blade and mallet after the turning was complete. When glue up was complete the blank weighed 38 pounds. It was 35 inches long, and 6 1/4 inches on a side, which is a pretty hefty hunk of wood.

I didn't want the blank flying apart when I started turning so for safety's sake I drilled 4 holes, 2 on each end in the flat part of the pommels and inserted 4, six inch lag bolts to add strength across the brown paper boundary and help hold the two section blank together.

I spent two days turning the column and two additional days of sanding it smooth. The finished column was close to being perfect. The two halves of the column remained glued together and there was only a minor indication of the two beginning to separate during the turning.

I was concerned about turning such a heavy and long piece using just the head stock and tail stock centers. I contemplated using a faceplate for greater strength but rejected that idea when I couldn't guarantee that I could get it exactly centered on the end of the blank. When turning pommels or coved ends on a column it is imperative that the blank be mounted dead center, other wise the square parts of the pommel and the round part of the column will be off center with respect to one another and it will result in a very noticeable error. Fortunately the four spur drive center and the 60 degree spur center with bearings that are supplied with the lathe worked great. I had no problem at all with this heavy piece coming loose.

During the turning of this heavy blank, there was absolutely no vibration in this very massive lathe. Before I started, I placed pencil marks on the shop floor that outlined the position of the lathe legs. When the turning was complete, the legs were still within the penciled outlines indicating the lathe had not moved even the slightest amount. Since I did not have to add any extra sand bag ballast to keep the lathe steady, this really made my day, and validated my decision to purchase this heavy machine over one of the lighter models.

I added the flutes to the column using a home built jig consisting of a cradle to hold the round column, with a router table and guide on top. I used a plunge router to route a flute the length of the column and I repeated this every 20 degrees around the column circumference. I simply rotated the column in its cradle until the flute line lined up with the center line of the router guide and then made the cut, and then repeated the procedure until all flutes were cut. I removed the 4 lag bolts and split the column lengthwise into two identical halves by forcing a thin blade in the brown paper intersection of the two column halves. Check out the pictures of this lathe and column in the "User Supplied Pictures" section below Amazon's picture of the lathe.

Other features to note about this lathe are:

1. The headstock has 12 holes on the spindle spaced at 30 degree intervals, and three threaded holes spaced at 20 degree intervals in the headstock casting. Using the supplied threaded indexing pin and a combination of these two sets of index holes allows the user to rotate and lock the piece mounted on the lathe in 10 degree increments.

2. The lathe has a variable speed control that can be adjusted when the lathe is turning. Variable speed is accomplished by changing the diameters of the motor and head stock belt pulleys, effectively changing the "gear" ratio between the two.

3. The headstock slides the entire length of the bed and can be rotated a full 360 degrees for turning bowls or blanks larger than 14 inches.

4. The lathe comes with a tool rest extension for turning bowls.

During the time I spent on this column project, I got to know and feel comfortable with this lathe. I am glad I invested the effort researching lathes because I'm pretty sure that I ended up with a high quality machine that will provide years of heavy duty use and more than likely will never have to be replaced by a "better machine". Would I buy this lathe again? The answer is a definite yes.

This is a great addition to any woodworkers shop and is very easy to setup and use but the workmanship in this Jet product is below par. After two months I noticed the base was starting to rust so I immediately disassembled it and repainted the base before the rust got out of hand. This could have been prevented at the factory by using a good rust proof paint. After less than 5 hours of turning the adjustable pulley mounted on the motor came loose and had to be reinstalled properly. Once I got all the problems straightened out that quality control should have corrected this wood lathe is a great addition to my shop. Of the three Jet products I own, (Jet shaper, Jet bandsaw and Jet wood lathe), the workmanship in this item is the worst of the three.

Jet is by far one of the best wood lathes on the market. For the dollar you can't beat the quality. The JET 708358 JWL-1442VSK is a heavy duty unit that isn't going to walk across your shop floor the first time you turn it on.

great tool--well made, sturdy. For those of you who are wood turners, this is a good choice.

This is my first lathe, and after about a year turning bowls on it, the only issue I have is the motor location. It sticks out where it can get in the way sometimes. Other than that, no other problems.

I've owned and used a Jet JWL1442 for about 2 1/2 years. Although it does have some very good features, it also has some serious drawbacks which potential buyers should be aware of.

The worst feature, from a design perspective, must be the position of the motor. Mounted to the right of the mechanism (i.e. of the belts driving the spindle), the end of the motor extends into the area of the swing (actually, beyond the end of the spindle!), such that some blanks and turnings are blocked. This is especially evident when reverse mounting a large partly turned bowl, where the chuck is expanded into the interior of the rough turning. I have to use a spindle extender to clear the motor, a work-around not needed on most other lathes.

There is also a problem with the banjo design. Instead of being cast entirely in iron, these banjos have a steel end plate, secured with 4 cap screws. The problem is that the screws create a weak point, such that under heavy use, such as roughing bowls from large, oddly-shaped blanks, the screws break the cast iron. I do use it hard, to rough bowls from roughly-rounded log sections, and have broken that casting once so far in the process.

Also I should add that though I've gotten the spare parts I've needed, and so far quickly enough, ordering them has been problematic. Don't even bother to use their web site to order parts. It let me complete the entire process, then rejected me at the very end without any explanation. When I phoned in my order, their service rep acknowledged that it fails to work at least half the time. Several months later : no change. Contact them by phone if you want to save some aggrevation.

Other minor issues are that the 1 HP motor is not powerful enough, tending to stall frequently when turning large items aggressively (or even less aggressively). The stepped speed control is convenient compared with belts, but the lowest speed, 450 rpm, is not as slow as I'd like for some bowl turning. And this machine is not really heavy enough to turn large off-balance blanks without being bolted to the floor - not a biggie since I did that, and a common enough issue with many lathes.

Recently one of the locking levers on the banjo wore out. The inner part is steel and the outer part is aluminum, fitting together by splines on each part. Well, the aluminum part wears against the steel in use, and NOT so eventually, fails. Again, I tried to order this part on line, getting a message that they weren't able to complete my order, but would attempt to fill it manually (apparently their work-around for a disfunctional web site). I actually received the parts (I bought 2, at less than $7 each) about a week later, but they charged me almost $20 to ship these 2 very small parts, in a small padded envelope, which weighed less that one pound altogether. I think that charge was a bit excessive.

On the plus side, those big legs ARE pretty heavy, and their weight combined with the rest (this is the only machine tool I own which I needed a hoist to assemble, at ~380 lbs. total) should be plenty for anyone planning to just turn spindles (or SMALL bowls). The rotating head should be (I haven't actually used it that way yet) a great plus for turning larger-than-swing size objects off the side or end of the bed, though the outboard tool rest (which cantilevers off the banjo) is much too flimsy to be useful. I will have to build a separate tool stand. The (potential) ability to turn outboard really saves this machine for me, as a bowl turner, though I could certainly wish for an outboard tool rest that actually works.

Mostly, it boils down to the fact that this is really a spindle lathe, and NOT really a bowl lathe, though it tries. When I bought it, I had planned to mostly turn spindles for furniture. NOW, I'm WILD about bowls! It's not a bad lathe, and will serve me until I can afford an ideal, big VicMarc or OneWay bowl machine. But if you are mostly interested in bowl turning, I'd recommend a bigger lathe, and preferably one designed for face-plate work, if possible (Jet's JWL1642 would be much better, with its continuously variable speed control, a better placed motor, and more capacity, if you don't need to turn VERY big). All that said, for the price I paid (<$800 going on 3 years ago), this is a still pretty good machine.

I spent alot of time checking out which lathe I wanted to buy in this size. Most of my woodworking stationary tools are Delta but I didn't feel that they made a comparable unit in this category. After having this for a couple of years now I can still say this is absolutely a great purchase. Speed changes are effortless; heavy construction virtually eliminates vibration (even when I decide to turn large out of balance blocks). Easy set up, easy to use and high quality add up to a best buy.