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Any Nova DVR owners move on to larger lathes?

Mark Jundanian said:
Well I have a Nova 1624-II with the DVR upgrade. I am pretty happy with it except for two issues. I really dislike the blister buttons which are difficult to use and the legs are a little light weight so it can be a little challenging to turn an unbalanced piece. But I don't do the latter very often and it's not a big goal of mine for the near future and I really like the features of the DVR over other variable speed solutions. So if it's not broken I think your decision comes down to the simple question is there something about your DVR lathe that is so annoying you don't want to continue or has your turning evolved and the DVR can no longer take you there.
Click to expand...

Mark, I wasn't crazy about the blister buttons either, but saw a tip on the Nova owners FB page: at your local Lowes, Home Depot, or home improvement store get some small felt buttons (not sure what you call them) that are usually used to quiet a drawer when it closes or go on the bottom of something to allow it to slide easier. they have self stick and 1/8" thick so they are easier to locate. rubber ones are available also.

Oh, let me add that I also upgraded it with the latest control panel upgrades AND I love my DVR-XP.
 
Dave, thanks for the tip. They're called bump stops or bumpers. A member here actually suggested them to me after a previous rant, but it's good to reiterate for others.

They help a good bit, but even with bumpers these buttons are a poor design. You mentioned a control panel upgrade. I wonder if there's something for my unit?
 
My Nova 1624 DVR upgrade was all fun and giggles untill it now gives me a "RPS 0" error. Apparently ther is a "rotation position sensor" which has decided to shut the motor down, No help from the suggestions on the Teknatool website. Still waiting to hear back from a technician. Anyone out there been able to fix this problem?
 
The obvious would be checking the "rotation position sensor", some of these type sensors can be a problem if they come loose or become miss-aligned to the shaft target. Most likely not an easy item to get to, I would look at the equipment drawing and locate the sensors and their locations inside the housing and see how they are mounted. There are several YouTube videos that show the internals on a few of these machines.
 
Bill Szydlo said:
The Laguna has a 3 hp motor compared to the 2 hp (220) of my Nova and has the larger swing but,
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Obscure comment here.......:D

My Woodfast lathe has 1 1/2hp motor, and I very seldom bog it down. If I do bog it down, I consider it too aggressive a cut, anyway! o_O

If I were to get a new lathe, I wouldn't bother with the 3hp, and would go with the (now) standard 2hp......why?.....because powering through cuts has the disadvantage of disrupting grain beneath the surface, no matter how sharp the tool, or precise the presentation. Even when roughing, it's better to take lighter cuts made with precision and finesse.....if it's anywhere near where the finished surface will be.

Of course, I expect there will be disagreement.......but, that's my opinion.....:rolleyes:

-----odie-----
 
odie said:
Obscure comment here.......:D

My Woodfast lathe has 1 1/2hp motor, and I very seldom bog it down. If I do bog it down, I consider it too aggressive a cut, anyway! o_O

If I were to get a new lathe, I wouldn't bother with the 3hp, and would go with the (now) standard 2hp......why?.....because powering through cuts has the disadvantage of disrupting grain beneath the surface, no matter how sharp the tool, or precise the presentation. Even when roughing, it's better to take lighter cuts made with precision and finesse.....if it's anywhere near where the finished surface will be.

Of course, I expect there will be disagreement.......but, that's my opinion.....:rolleyes:

-----odie-----
Click to expand...
No disagreement here! Well said.
 
Bill Boehme said:
His faceshield is up. What if he gets a catch and the bowl comes flying off the "lathe"? :D
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Ha,ha......he doesn't need a faceshield......he needs a roll bar! :)
 
odie said:
Obscure comment here.......:D

My Woodfast lathe has 1 1/2hp motor, and I very seldom bog it down. If I do bog it down, I consider it too aggressive a cut, anyway! o_O

If I were to get a new lathe, I wouldn't bother with the 3hp, and would go with the (now) standard 2hp......why?.....because powering through cuts has the disadvantage of disrupting grain beneath the surface, no matter how sharp the tool, or precise the presentation. Even when roughing, it's better to take lighter cuts made with precision and finesse.....if it's anywhere near where the finished surface will be.

Of course, I expect there will be disagreement.......but, that's my opinion.....:rolleyes:

-----odie-----
Click to expand...
Thanks Odie for your thoughts on 3hp vs 2. I never thought about the "disrupting the grain" angle. Do you do any coring? From talking with other turners I get the impression that 2hp is not enough to core effectively. Since I have not using a coring attachment I'm curious what others think of the hp needed to core?
 
Bill Szydlo said:
Thanks Odie for your thoughts on 3hp vs 2. I never thought about the "disrupting the grain" angle. Do you do any coring? From talking with other turners I get the impression that 2hp is not enough to core effectively. Since I have not using a coring attachment I'm curious what others think of the hp needed to core?
Click to expand...

Well now, that is a thought, Bill.....and, a point to consider! o_O

No, I don't do any coring. I've considered getting a coring jig in the past, but haven't. The main reason why I've never bought one, is it severely limits you on what final shapes you can pursue. Given that, I've always just resolved myself to waste the interior wood of my bowls.

I can certainly see how those who want to core, might be better off to get the higher horsepower motor. :D

-----odie-----
 
Mark Jundanian said:
Dave, thanks for the tip. They're called bump stops or bumpers. A member here actually suggested them to me after a previous rant, but it's good to reiterate for others.

They help a good bit, but even with bumpers these buttons are a poor design. You mentioned a control panel upgrade. I wonder if there's something for my unit?
Click to expand...
Mark, The NOVA Saturn is the replacement for the DVR-XP. the only difference was the control panel. They announced that they had a limited number of control boards available for the DVR-XP. I jumped on the offer and felt like I had a new lathe. A few months later I bought one for our club's DVR-XP too. At the time I was told that was the last one, but you should check with them. No reason they can't make them available, again, it's the same control panel as the Saturn.
 
Dave Hulett said:
Mark, The NOVA Saturn is the replacement for the DVR-XP. the only difference was the control panel. They announced that they had a limited number of control boards available for the DVR-XP. I jumped on the offer and felt like I had a new lathe. A few months later I bought one for our club's DVR-XP too. At the time I was told that was the last one, but you should check with them. No reason they can't make them available, again, it's the same control panel as the Saturn.
Click to expand...
Mark, I upgraded my XP with the new control panel last September and really like the upgrade. When I spoke with Nova they did not mention that they had limited control panels so if you are interested it would be worth a call. For less than $200 it was a very worthwhile upgrade.
 
I think the new controls make it a really good lathe.

I had an opportunity to talk with one of the engineers several years ago about the obvious weakness of the the controls.
Also the lack of big red stop button made it an unsafe lathe to operate.

with decent controls the nova is at the head of the class for lightweight lathes.
I have roughed bowls from 14” half logs and the Nova does it really well.
 
I have had the error, RPS 0, a few times on my Galaxy lathe. Blowing out the drive, with a compressor driven air gun, through the slot below the spindle and through the ventilation holes in the back plate fixed it for a short time. I finally removed the back panel, fairly easy to do, and did a much better job of blowing out all the dust. It has been around 6 or 8 months since I did that and have had no further issues. The tip on the bumpers works very well for me, it is almost to the point that I do not even think about the buttons anymore.
 
Gary Beasley said:
I got the upgrade as well. Found that the older DVR requires two new boards to work but the newer ones just need the external board. I got off easy with that. The only thing I dont like is the off button takes a bit of pressure to activate it, hopefully the will get better with time.
Click to expand...
I'm thinking I'd like to upgrade mine. I look up their instructions which said V6 mainboards and hope that the "V8..." I see on boot up refers to the mainboard version. I like the 10 persets and a knob for speed. Changing from 500 to 1250 5 rpm at a time is annoying.
 
Mike Adams said:
I'm thinking I'd like to upgrade mine. I look up their instructions which said V6 mainboards and hope that the "V8..." I see on boot up refers to the mainboard version. I like the 10 persets and a knob for speed. Changing from 500 to 1250 5 rpm at a time is annoying.
Click to expand...
The knob also has a push in function that changes the speeds in much larger increments while pushing in, quite handy if you dont feel like messing with buttons while bringing the speed up to vibration point.
 
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