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Nova DVR - Feedback from UK Owners Please

I am living in the UK and hoping to upgrade my lathe in the next few weeks. I am seriously considering opting for the Nova DVR, partly because the comments from this newsgroup seem to have been so positive. I am, however, aware that some owners in the US have experienced significant problems at the lower end of the lathes speed range. Some improvement has apparently been achieved by converting the power supply to 220-240v (as it is already over here).

Apparently Teknatool has also attempted to improve low end performance by modifying the lathe's software. Presumably it is a combination of these two things that has enabled the lathes minimum speed to be reduced from the

250pm on US machines to the 100rpm available on those here in the UK.

Thus what I am particularly interested in is whether owners in the UK have experienced any of the problems encountered by our American friends. For instance, are there any problems with roughing out large unbalanced logs/blanks? Is torque a problem when taking heavy cuts at low speed? Are unexpected power surges ever experienced? etc,etc...

And more generally, are UK owners as satisfied with their DVRs as those from the US (low end problems aside)?

Comments of non-UK owners also appreciated.

Thanks

Gary

Reply to
GaryPearse
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I just purchased a DVR (in the US) and it's currently running on 110VAC and it goes down to 100RPM.

Peter Teubel Milford, MA

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Reply to
Peter Teubel

Hello Gary,

I've had a Nova DVR for almost a year and a half. My first head apparently had some sort of problem early on; however, when I converted it to 220 power the problems seemed to go away, until one day it wouldn't start. Teknatool replaced the headstock with their newest version that goes down to 100 rpm and operates on 110 volt ac. This new head has performed perfectly. At 100 rpm, you don't have a great deal of torque, but it still seems to work ok at that speed.

Personally, I seldom turn below 250 to 300 rpm, even on large wet out of balance blanks that can still be swung over the bed. The thing that was most amazing to me was the lack of vibration with the NOVA DVR. I had a 16" blank on the lathe spinning at about 300 rpm and set a glass of water on top of the headstock. The water swayed a little but there were no vibration ripples.

There are better lathes than the NOVA DVR, but they also cost considerably more than it does. I don't think you can find a better lathe in its price range.

Fred Holder

Reply to
Fred Holder

Gary

As you're looking at this type of lathe it'll be worth a look at the new Poolewood (can't remember the name/number). I believe it has a larger capacity than the Nova DVR and is priced lower.

Reply to
Mark Hancock

As you research your decision to purchase a DVR be sure to study the effects of changing the operating parameters on large and heavy blanks. Teknatool has preprogrammed torque parameter adjustments to mitigate some of the torque problems. I have a USA, 100 rpm, 110v model; like Fred, I seldom turn much below 250 rpms. I am in complete agreement with Fred's closing statement regarding the value in a DVR Larry

Reply to
Larry E

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