Nice setups. My Jet 1236 is of the same type as your green 1024, just a slightly bigger drive box around the spindle, and it's gray. (Taiwan made, 1991). It's the belt drive version of course; the gear head version like your 1236 is what a good friend of mine has and its a lot more convenient for speed changes, not having a VFD of course.That's the lowest the VFD runs it, 34 rpms. Finish is real nice with carbide for aluminum laydown inserts.
I could run faster, there is really no need with the made for aluminum inserts.
Have VFD on all 3 lathes I use for barrel works. The 1440ev came with a factory installed 7HP VFD feeding the 5HP motor. The 1236 and 1024 VFDs run 2HP motors. All lathes are Taiwanese made.
The DRO on the 1236 died after a year, re-installed the TravADial
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Tell me about the micrometer stop piece at the bottom of the apron on that green 1024 - what does it do and what do you use it for? I haven't seen a stop mounted down low like that before.
That 1440 with the VFD is a sweet setup. I'd love to upgrade my 1236 to one like that.
BTW I went back and checked, that 16ER AG60 insert is the same one I'm using, pictured in one of my earlier posts in this thread. I bought 3 Carmex inserts way back when I first started threading with carbide, looks like I'm on the second one now and still have one left. That's a lot of miles on a couple of inserts and a LOT of threading; so much for them being "frustrating and expensive", lol. You're right about them being sharp enough to leave good finishes in most materials; they're also tough enough to withstand some common screwups without incident. I've certainly crashed mine into a shoulder a few times as I learned; most of the time it just screwed up the part without hurting the insert.
I also use the smaller size (whatever number that is - I forget) on a threading bar for internal threads. A tip I learned that's helped me a lot - flip the threading bar upside down, and thread on the side away from you, so you can see it better compared to craning your neck to see into the closer side of a tube.
Internal threading is an important skill for anyone doing F1 suppressor work of course; it's not really harder except that sometimes you can't really see what's happening very well and have to go by the numbers or more basic methods like sharpie marks on the threading bar.
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