# j line lathes



## robert421960 (Dec 9, 2010)

what do you all know about these?
i found one in good shape for 350 bucks
its one from a vocational school
needing some opinions
thanks in advance
robert


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## john lucas (Sep 18, 2007)

j-line made some good lathes. $350 might be a decent price if everything is working. Finding missing parts can be a little challenging. Quite often lathes from schools are missing either the tool rest banjo, tailstock, or the tailstock quill. These are things that are very hard to find. The J-lines had standard morse tapers, and spindle sizes so that isn't a problem. 
also make sure it isn't 3 phase motor. That can be worked around but is expensive so it would have to be a really nice lathe to spend the extra money needed to convert it to work off of single phase.
My first good lathe was a J-line. It was missing the motor, spindle, and tailstock quill. Took quite a bit of work to make it work but it was a great lathe after I did all the modifications. I put a DC motor and controller on it. Had the spindle built from scratch with a 1 1/4x8 thread and found cheap Delta quill that was too large by 1/8". I was able to turn that down to fit the lathe and got the whole thing going.


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## dlw7945 (Nov 17, 2012)

Can you help me with parts need to make change, I love the lathe and do not want to sell it, totaly restored to a T.

just frustrated with shaft being 1/16 to large

Weave


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## john lucas (Sep 18, 2007)

You would have to talk to a machinist. I don't know if they can just turn it down. If it has 8tpi then they probably can. If it has a bastard size thread count then there may not be enough metal to do it. The guy who sold me the lathe was rebuilding it and had already had the thread pitch changed. I don't know what the original was.


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