Is there a best minimum speed?

Re: Is there a best minimum speed?

Wally Dickerman at Green Valley, Az.

>There can be a significant difference between 100 and 260 RPM. If you plan to mount sizable blanks right off the chain saw, then 100 RPM would be a much better choice. If you have a bandsaw, and can cut your blanks round, then 260 isn't that bad. You can weight your lathe down with sandbags which will help a lot. I've had several lathes over the years that had a minimum of 350 or more, and some of them did a lot of jumping around, but I learned how to tame them.

$500 will buy you a lot of turning accessories.

Wally

Re: Is there a best minimum speed?

Djbber

>There is no difference between 100 and 260 as far as I am concerned. The only time you might see a need to get down to 200 rpm or less is if you intend on doing thread chasing. I have turned many large bowls and wouldn't consider using such a slow speed even to get started. I would use approx 350 or higher until I get the blank balanced between centers. Even if you use a band saw to create a round blank the blank may still be out of balance because it is unlikely to be symetrical. It will be heavier on one side.

Re: Is there a best minimum speed?

RonZ

>It's all according to the size work you're doing and what you're doing at the time. On my Vicmarc VL300 I usually work at around 1800 rpm for spindle work and 3000 for pen turning [high]. I use the slowest speed of 30 rpm to apply finishes. Bowls are a different story. For large rough bowls I start of very slow until it's rounded. I turn up the speed until it vibrates and back down until just when the vibration stops and that's the speed I work at. This is all individual for the person and/or the lathe but perhaps it might give you an idea.

Re: Is there a best minimum speed?

Richard Allen

>I seam to recall that there were more issues than minimum speed between the "old" DVR and the "new" DVR.

260 rpm is fast for the things already mentioned and for sanding out of round bowls. There is also an often used technique when turning the food of a bowl that was turned green. If you can run the lathe slow when jam chucked you can blend the oval surface of the sides of the bowl with the round foot of the bowl.

Good Luck

Re: Is there a best minimum speed?

JamieDonaldson

>There may also be an issue of torque difference between the two lathes at lowest speed.I have not compared them side by side, but most such lathes have minimum "turning power" at minimum RPM.

Re: Is there a best minimum speed?

Arch

>I guess that very high acceleration of an unbalanced or even a very heavy balanced load from zero to 260 rpm will impose significantly greater stress than a steep ramp from standstill to 100rpm even if the steady velocity differences are slight. I know very little about physics so maybe it just takes longer to reach 260rpm than 100rpm, so that the acceleration is about the same. I sure don't know and I should erase this post, but with unbalanced stock, I feel safer switching on to a 100rpm lower limit than 240rpm. Somebody please rescue me with a proper explanation.

Re: Is there a best minimum speed?

T. Minehan

>Bill,

There has been lots of comments recently concerning the DVR's low end speed and torque on the Nova owmners forum. Take a look at NovaOwners@groups.msn.com

The DVR is pretty easy to stall at low rpm's when run on 115 volts but can be converted to run on 230 which helps the low end torque. I run my DVR on 115 as I haven't run into torque problems on the stuff I have turned.

I have had my DVR for almost a year and it goes to 100 rpm. It would not be worth $500 to me to go from 250 to 100 rpm. I would rather spend to money on tools, chucks, etc.

Tom

Re: Is there a best minimum speed?

GeeSeaWhy

>I have the new version of the DVR. I don't use the minimum speed for turning, but I do find it very useful for sanding bowls that I have turned green and taken too long over. I also use the low speed for applying finishes but it is the ability to power sand an oval bowl that is really worth something. Worth $500? Probably not that much, to me.

HTH

Graeme

Re: Is there a best minimum speed?

RonZ

>Perhaps this is a problem with direct drive and I wonder if let's say the Poolwood lathe behaves the same. The Vicmarc has three belt settings so you can get more torque on low speed work if you need.

Re: Is there a best minimum speed?

John Leonard

>I seem to remember that you could purchase a new card for the older DVR's that would bring the minimum speed down to 100. Seems like it was less than $100.00. Wonder if the $500 differece is because of the change in the exchange rate. I would check with Technatool and see if the new card is available and its cost. Maybe you can have the best of both worlds. John Leonard