Nova Lathes - are they horribly expensive to repair?

[John. B]

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

 

[Steve Blackdog]

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

 

[boysie39]

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.

 

[Aled Dafis]

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

 

[Worthtrying]

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

Hi Ben
I've been using a 20 year old Nova DVR 3000. Though being very robust & an excellent lathe, when they malfunction or in my case, stop completely, it's a nightmare trying to get service at affordable prices. The number of agents in the UK are limited, and then they're not always able to offer a solution. When I contacted Turners Retreat, though trying to be be helpful, couldn't offer a viable repair service. Instead, they suggested replacing the circuit boards at a cost of £500! It seems that our 'throw away society' has now become the norm across the board. On newer models of Nova lathes the inherent design problems found on the DVR 3000 might have been corrected but based on my experiences with mine over the past 6 years, I wouldn't recommend acquiring one.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Twelve years later he's probably bought something else.

 

[Spectric]

Technology has also moved on over the last twelve years and there will be many more options out there to choose from.

 

[Doug B]

Blimey this thread is a blast from the past, my DVR is still going strong after 18 years, where did all those years go

 

[Worthtrying]

Twelve years later he's probably bought something else.

Yes, I'd guess he has Phil. I suppose I was clutching at straws and hoping somebody had learnt of a fix, or a firm that could achieve 'the fix' for me!