Looking at a new lathe

I don't know anything about the Laguna but I used to own a Nova DVR and I have used the Nova 1624. The Nova DVR is a very nice lathe. I liked the Nova swivel headstock. Nova lathes runs smooth and have fairly good power for their size. The newer DVR models have several improvements over the one that I owned. They now have more low end torque and a programable start up speed. Lack of these two features was a problem for me but Teknatool has addressed the issues. Nova's lathe stand is not very heavy. It is OK for small items but if you plan on turning anything that is heavy and/or out of round you will want to bolt it to the floor and beef it up with weight or better yet, build your own stand.

Ted

If you decide to go with the Nova, I'd STRONGLY recommend not getting the "universal" stand that they try to push on you.. Spend the extra $100 or so and get the cast iron legs.. I use the lathe pretty much every day and my only regret with it is the (IMHO) POS sheet metal stand.. I've tried adding 300 pounds of sand, but still get vibration.. and since I use a lot of magnets to hold accessories like chuck keys and things on the stand, I realize how damn noisy it is.. CLANG!

I'm considering modifying the cast iron legs from my Jet to fit the Nova, and putting the Jet on the sheet metal stand..

A few of the reasons that I chose the Nova: No belt = less vibration and more control, IMO

True digital speed control.. 5 pre-sets and up/down in 5 rpm increments

Very quiet... almost as quiet as my Jet mini

Computer monitors the spindle RPM and torque curve and keeps it constant during heavy cuts or sanding.. It also senses a catch, not that you'll ever have one of those), and stops the lathe..

Very easy to use a vacuum chuck with the Nova rotary valve.. about $35..

Let me know if ya have any questions, Randy..

mac

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Thanks to everyone for your input.... I hope to be getting a new lathe before the end of th year. I will make sure I get the cast iron legset....

Randy

I second all that Mac says. However, I'm not a gypsy so my stand is bolted to two 2 x 4's and they are glued to the concrete floor with silicone. No shaking or shimmying. No sandbag emplacements. No concrete block revetments.

I'd guess that this is a problem with all DSC lathes, but I only know the XP..

Gerald has added circuitry to remedy this, but not being an electrician or wanting to void the warranty on a fairly new lathe, I haven't got the guts to try it..

mac

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Yep.. a couple of them, but I think Gerald's is pretty clean and (relatively) simple..

mac

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