# Nova Lathes - are they horribly expensive to repair?



## bohngy (14 Feb 2012)

Hello helpful UKW folk, 

I'm doing ever-increasing quantities of turning and as a consequence I'm considering a new lathe. I've heard/read great reviews of the Nova DVR lathes, but I'm rather troubled by the use of highly proprietary components. Has this prevented anyone else from buying one? Do they go wrong often, and perhaps most importantly, do repairs cost arms and legs?

Any thoughts along these lines would be most helpful.

Thanks in advance, Ben


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## cookie777 (14 Feb 2012)

Hi Ben 
I'm not to sure about this lathe either, Record make big play on their 5yr guarantee, in small print electrics are only 1 year, in my opinion a lathe of this type is relying totaly on the electrics. one member of this forum took his to the tip after a problem I seem to remember, perhaps he will see this thread & comment


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## jumps (14 Feb 2012)

just do a frum search on the lathe and read ALL the threads - there are a lot.

I am afraid I don't understand your comment re "I'm rather troubled by the use of highly proprietary components" - maybe you could explain and give an example of an alternative approach?

in there you will find the reference Cookie made - https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums...tions-please-t54589.html?hilit=Nova DVR lathe in which the last post by Blister (Allen) was to this effect - but there were no responses.

I will leave it to you to read them all and draw your own conclusions.


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## bohngy (14 Feb 2012)

thanks jumps, 

It's as I suspected. The "proprietary components" I was alluding to was the entire design/headstock. On a traditional lathe if the motor went, you could replace just that. The same story for bearings, etc. It does seem that Nova consider the DVR headstock to be a single, almost sealed, unit. There isn't going to be anything inside that casing that I could service, let alone get spare parts for. 

and thanks to cookie - I didn't notice that the electrics are only covered by a 1yr warranty...

So does anyone have anything more realistic to suggest? I liked the capacities of the Nova DVR. I'm a furniture restorer, so would like a lathe that I can do spindle work with, along with the occasional large bowl/platter for myself.


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## Blister (15 Feb 2012)

Yes 

It was me that scrapped one due to the cost of a replacement head stock price £1100 

Record don't make these lathes they are from Tecknatool 

To try and diagnose the problem I had , and all the fault code numbers that kept appearing on the display , Record asked me for the data 

then I had a 2 day delay getting a reply as they had to email Canada for a reply :roll: 

I ended up sending the headstock to Haydock converters who said it was a bad design to put everything in the headstock so it is all vulnerable to Heat / Vibration / dust ingress and said it was not repairable 

so please think long and hard before purchasing one of these lathes

Have you looked at these lathes ?

http://www.philirons.co.uk/index.php?op ... Itemid=119


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## Harlequin (15 Feb 2012)

I had similar concerns around the DVR
I went for the 1624 by Nova(record) but got it converted to variable speed by Haydock.
This results in a very simple and robust setup that any one can repair and maintain should the need arise.
Haydock converters will need to re-bore the motor pulley as well to be able to take the new 3 phase motor- which they do as part of the service but not very well (best to get this done elsewhere)


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## boysie39 (15 Feb 2012)

I have a 1624-44 the same as Harlequin, I also got mine converted by Hadock about 3yrs ago and have had no trouble at all. I had no concerns about the DVR except for the price, but I have a simelier lathe now for far less money.
Would I buy another yes and I would do exactley as I have done with the one I have .


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## Paul Hannaby (15 Feb 2012)

I suppose the answer here is new lathes are free to repair because they are under guarantee. It's when they get past the guarantee that they become expensive!
I think I would want to know that any prospective purchase was backed up with spares and support if things did go wrong.


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## Deejay (15 Feb 2012)

Evening Ben

Cookie said *Record make big play on their 5yr guarantee, in small print electrics are only 1 year*

Not so, according to one of the Record demonstators I spoke to recently at Yandles.

I'm thinking about a CL4 so it was that lathe he was specifically talking about and confirmed a five year warranty on everything.

Worth an email to Record to confirm the warranty before you (or I) buy.

PS ML8 owner absent on Tuesday. I'll keep trying. Things move slowly down here :? 

Cheers

Dave


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## Blister (15 Feb 2012)

Deejay":3nene55t said:


> Evening Ben
> 
> Cookie said *Record make big play on their 5yr guarantee, in small print electrics are only 1 year*
> 
> ...




When I tried to claim on my guarantee I was told " SORRY 1 year on all electrical components " that's why it went in the bin


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## CHJ (15 Feb 2012)

Try this instead of counting sheep tonight. (PDF)


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## Doug B (15 Feb 2012)

I`ve had a DVR for 6 years now & not had a single problem with it.

That said anything with electronics in it wont like being stored in a damp atmosphere & then being switched on with the possibility of condensation on the circuitry, I make a point of keeping mine fairly warm

The motor in the DVR is 3 phase & the electronics are an inverter, so even if the inverter packs up, for a couple of hundred quid you could buy a new inverter & rig it to the existing motor, so not all would be lost.

On a different point, I`m surprised you binned your Nova Alan, I`ve been looking for an extension bed for mine, each section retails at £160 & there are 2 on a standard lathe & the leg stand retails at £359. Shame you didn`t put it up for sale as spares.

Cheers.


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## Blister (16 Feb 2012)

Doug B":hy7cwyu2 said:


> I`ve had a DVR for 6 years now & not had a single problem with it.
> 
> That said anything with electronics in it wont like being stored in a damp atmosphere & then being switched on with the possibility of condensation on the circuitry, I make a point of keeping mine fairly warm
> 
> ...




Haydock converters said they could not put a external inverter on the lathe because of the way the windings /pickup works 
I was also told Sorby stopped selling them because of this problem

It went in the bin because I was so :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: with it

Maybe it's now several hundred beer cans , something usefull :mrgreen: 
My revenge :mrgreen:


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## dennisk (16 Feb 2012)

Your lathe sounds like an Elu compound mitre saw I had about 20 years ago. Smashed to bits and in the bin,tired of messing with it. And as you said, Blister, I hope it went into beer cans.


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## Deejay (16 Feb 2012)

Morning Blister

*It went in the bin because I was so :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: with it*

If this happens again, please let me know and I'll bring you a bin.  

Cheers

Dave


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## Blister (16 Feb 2012)

Deejay":3ommxrhi said:


> Morning Blister
> 
> *It went in the bin because I was so :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: with it*
> 
> ...



I am now in a marriage made in heaven :mrgreen: 

Did I say how much I love my lathe :lol: 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)


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## duncanh (16 Feb 2012)

I've had a DVR for over 5 years now and generally like it but there are some issues:-

Whilst clearing out dust from the speed sensor I forgot to switch off the electrics and shorted the main circuit board. When this happened the whole machine died. There were 2 options - send the whole headstock back to Record (although I'd bought it from Sorby) or diagnose the problem myself with help direct from Teknatool staff in NZ. Whilst this was frustrating due to time differences it was much better than dealing with Record who, at the time, appeared to know very little about the product.
We eventually worked out that the main control board was fried and needed replacing. This was fairly straightfoward to remove and send back to Record but as it's a fairly unusual component to replace I had to wait for about a month for one to come from NZ. When it arrived I found that the new board was designed for the new headstock and was slightly too long at one spot. This was easily fixed with a Dremel. Once installed I discovered that the new board gave me all the new software updates such as 5 speeds etc.
Total price for the new board was about £250.

One common complaint with the DVR is the lack of remote. There are plans online and I've made one that has been working for over 5 years but Teknatool now make their own which is wireless. It can used with the old lathes but a simple upgrade may be required.


The optical speed sensor is located in the headstock and can sometimes be confused by dust. This has only happened to me a couple of times and it can be easily cleared by wacking up the speed to max. If that doesn't work the headstock is easily opened.

There's a Yahoo group here but it doesn't get much traffic.


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## bobham (16 Feb 2012)

My story is very similar to Duncan's. I shorted my main board out a few months after he did his. I was able to get a new board (which also gave me the new features of the the XP) for about $500, or ~20% of the original cost of the lathe. It now works well again and the new features are nice. The only thing I have noticed is that it seems to be considerably easier to stall the lathe now than it was before, which I suspect means that the new board is not 100% compatible with the old lathe, just close enough to work.  It still has adequate power for most things but I am relatively sure it does not have as much as it used to.

Take care
Bob


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## Doug B (17 Feb 2012)

bobham":f1mtvukn said:


> The only thing I have noticed is that it seems to be considerably easier to stall the lathe now than it was before,



Just a thought.

I seem to remember reading that the stall function could be set at different levels, might be worth checking to see if your`s could be set at a high cut out level Bob.


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## duncanh (17 Feb 2012)

bobham":y7b92kc6 said:


> It now works well again and the new features are nice. The only thing I have noticed is that it seems to be considerably easier to stall the lathe now than it was before, which I suspect means that the new board is not 100% compatible with the old lathe, just close enough to work.  It still has adequate power for most things but I am relatively sure it does not have as much as it used to.
> 
> Take care
> Bob



I forgot to mention that. I'm also sure that the lathe is now easier to stall. Changing the mode to Hard improves things a little but it's still not exactly as it was. This is only really noticeable when roughing down large logs or coring out bowls.
Some of the guys at Teknatool tried taking me through some hidden settings but it made no difference


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## John. B (20 Feb 2012)

I have an AXM. AWVSWL 1200 :lol: Cannot fault it. price is not so bad either.

check it out on the AXM website.

John. B


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## Steve Blackdog (21 Feb 2012)

I went for the 1624-42 Nova and have been extremely happy. I took Boysie's excellent advice that I could upgrade to the Haydock converter if required; but the speed change is such an easy process that I can't imagine wanting to go for the electronic variable speed. Just to put this into context I have enough change to buy a halfway decent bandsaw and a dust extractor! 

I notice that George Foweraker has the DVR in his workshop - so can't be bad!

http://wwwartistry-in-wood.blogspot.com ... rchive.htm


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## boysie39 (22 Feb 2012)

Steve, glad you are enjoying your lathe ,I would think that the 1624 is a safer buy than the DVR as you dont have to worry about electrics going wrong. Its not such a big deal to change the speed useing the belt. But the V/S is a real plus for me .I very seldom have to change the belt. Safe turning.


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## Aled Dafis (22 Feb 2012)

That's a great idea, a Nova 1624-44 is £1100, and a ready made converter package would be about £400-500 (you could do it yourself for a little less and it's surprisingly straightforward), so still quite a bit cheaper than the DVR and servicable to boot!

If you can afford it, go for Variable speed, I'd never go back to manual speed change.

Cheers
Aled


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