>I'm looking for some help- for a while I've had an issue with my Nova 3000 not turning round. I've replaced everything that I could through Woodcraft, and I'm wondering if it's not a case of pilot error.
I know that there is a guy in West Virginia named Tim Geist (?) who knows the machine inside and out. I've had it apart so many times, I might just be the cause...
The only thing I can think of is that the spindle is not parallel to the bed... and I don't know if that's correctable. Does anyone have an e-mail address for Tim?
>I don't have Tim's e-mail address, but his telephone number of 304-295-8166.
I don't think it would matter whether the spindle was parallel with the bed or not. If the spindle is running true the wood should cut round. Have you checked to see if the spindle is running true. One way to eyeball this is the put a drive center in the headstock and a center in the tailstock. Bring them close, but not touching, and as closely aligned as possible. Then turn on the lathe at its slowest speed and check for any circular rotation of the point in the headstock. If the spindle is not running true, you could have a bearing problem. If it is running true, it may be operator error causing the turnings to be out of round.
>When I had my first Nova it did the same thing but I had a clunking noise I could never get rid off. Went through changing all kinds of stuff out. I ended up with a Nova that still clunked. Woodcraft ended up replacing it. The new one was sweet and never had a problem. If you can, take it back to Woodcraft and have the fellas in the store look at it. If they can't figure it out swap it out. Really, a customer shouldn't have to fix something like that and Woodcraft is really good about that. To see if your spindle is off do like Mr. Holder said or you can use or use a micrometer (I think thats what they call it) with a magnetic base. A small measured wobble can translate to a big wobble at the wood. Good luck, Guy
>is usually what it's called. Micrometer is the C-clamp shaped thing for outside measurements. Both do measure in the same range though, thousandths or inch or metric equivalent.
Make sure the head of the Nova 3000 is locked down to the lathe bed "real tight". The Nova has a swivle head and I have read where folks have to do a little cleaning or adjusting the get the head stock to lock down real tight.
