RE: Lathe for conversions
No they don't make it anylonger. It's a shame as it is the smallest I've found with power cross feed. It wasn't the best of lathes, and all jet 10x24s are not equal. I bought a second face plate for mine and it was way loose on the nose, to the tune of 0.080". It has a few issues, but it does a good job. I couldn't turn down the $500 price on it. It is basicly the 12 by that Enco and others sell, just a taller head stock and a longer bed. I still use my little Taig for small and quick stuff though. I can spin it up a lot faster than the jet, so small parts get a better finish. I also have an adaptor on the mill adaptor for my fordom handpice and I use it as a OD grinder. I used it just the other day to grind a step on an electric motor shaft for one of the guys in the club who is getting into Helocoptors. Getting things moving fast enough for working on 3/32" shafting is a chalenge. I ended up using a 2" cutoff wheel for the grinding. I need to setup a proper high speed spindle for grinding I guess. Something around 50K rpm would be good for the small parts. Espically ID work.
Don