Variable Speed Midi Lathe Conversion Kit: for Turncrafter Pro, Jet & Delta

Worth every cent

One of the best items I have spent any amount or money on. I should have spent the money when I bought by lathe to get this feature.

Lathe conversion kit

The service was excellent. Shipment was on time. Easy to assemble,I considered the price to be fair. It greatly improves the performance of the lathe. I have ordered from Penn State before and have always been pleased. Thanks SGS

Well, it's pretty good...

Was able to successfully convert Jet midi lathe to variable speed. Control box, however, could not be mounted, so it stores clumsily under the lathe. Would be nice if a jet-specific control were included in order to mount the box in a convenient location.

need better instructions

First instruction was to remove old motor. Later in the instructions it says to turn a plug to line up the shaft holes. This would be difficult if you had followed step 1. There is no instruction as to which pulley step on the Jet 5 step pulley to line up with to obtain the slower speeds. I had to call both Penn state and Jet to get an answer.

TCLVSKIT

I wish I had my head about me enough when I purchased the lathe originally to move up to the variable speed version, but I though to myself, "What's moving a belt now and then. No big deal." I was wrong, I found myself turning things at the wrong speed consistently because I was too lazy to move the belt. So I finally splurged and spent the $120 or so to upgrade, and I am very glad I did. The installation was mostly straight forward. I was a little disappointed that it wasn't a direct bolt on for the Turncrafter Pro lathe, being both from the same company. I assumed that most of the modifications would need to be made to other brands, but I was wrong. There was no direct bolt-on to be done. This DC motor upgrade, while adding variable speed capabilities, is slightly underpowered compared with the original AC motor that came on the lathe. I find it dragging under heavy load (polishing, etc) where the AC pushed through. I suppose that it is a worthwhile trade-off, but it would have been better to have not had to make one at all. Regardless, I am happy with my purchase, even if it wasn't exactly what I intended.