New Lathe or upgrade?

Question

Looking for advise out there on what to do with my lathe. About 3 years ago I purchased a Nova 3000 without variable speed. I have regretted it ever since. I sure do get tired of moving the belt to change speed. I am also thinking of buying the outboard toolrest offered by Nova. I somtimes would like to turn larger than the 14 inches dia. I can now turn. I have held out buying the outboard toolrest thinking I may just may upgrade to a new lathe. Should I upgrade this lathe with a DC motor for variable speed and outboard toolrest or invest that money in a new and better lathe?

I should add that I almost never turn large chunks of wood, which would be out of balance when you start to turn. I do mostly segmented turning and purchased blocks of wood.

Bob Cook

George · Accepted Answer

I take it from your 14" reference that you're turning things over the rest? Capacity of the lathe is 15 3/4 over the bed, so I suppose you're turning with a single mount and can't reach around some of your designs? The Delta

46-430 toolrest extender will add quite a bit of reach for not much money, if you can find it. No longer shows at Packard's. It limits you a lot less than the outrigger, and is useful for extending into deep bowls, too.

As to changing speeds, I rough the ugliest and largest to circularity at

360, then change to 680, which is what I use most of the time for anything circular or under about 12 diameter. I think changing speed is more in habit than necessity, and it's a thirty-second job anyway. I think it would only confuse me to have convenient and continuous speed changes.

George · Answer

Almost forgot - read and perhaps ask at

Ecnerwal · Answer

If you're generally happy with the thing, a VS motor will be an improvement, and will cost a lot less than a new lathe. At present it's more of a tossup than it used to be as to DC VS or 3-phase AC and a VFD.

Kevin Miller · Answer

I have a Leeson variable speed motor on my Nova 3000 (original model) so have both belts and variable speed. I'd say to just replace your motor

- don't have to replace the whole lathe. Also, the 3000 will swing 16", not 14". So far, that's been plenty big enough for me. Turning larger would be nice, but I wouldn't do it much because good larger wood is harder to come by here. Unless you're planning on doing larger pieces on a regular basis, it may or may not be worth the effort/expense. The Leeson does do reverse though, so an outboard setup would fit right in...

...Kevin

William B Noble (don't reply to this address) · Answer

you can now get a much better variable speed setup for your nova at a modest cost - if the lathe otherwise meets your needs, pick up a USED

3 phase motor - maybe 1.5 to 2 hp, whatever size will fit - you can get a VFD controller used for $50 to $150, or you can get a new one for a bit more - that will give you a far superior setup to the vairable speed that came with the Nova - if you do use a DC motor, you will want a feedback controller rather than a simple open loop controller - but I would not use a DC motor any more -- AC variable frequency is so much nicer.

bill

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New Lathe or upgrade?

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