Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Nova 1624
Ron Pemberton
I have this lathe with pulleys to change the speed. Nova has an upgrade to change the lathe to a DVR. Has anyone tried this? I am retired and have lots of time to mess with changing speeds but I am considering purchasing this option.
Re: Nova 1624
Dave Paine
I have the NOVA DVR XP which is also 16inswing and 24 in between centres.
If you do the upgrade, I think you will have the same control as my DVR XP. A few pre-set speeds which are selected by two buttons on the control panel. Selecting speeds other than the presets is tedious, you need to keep pressing the up or down arrow which changes speed by something like 50 rpm.
The DVR upgrade will allow a lot more speeds, finer selection of speeds, but it may take more time than you appreciate to achieve the speeds.
The control panel really needs a knob for fast speed selection. Teknatool finally added this feature in the new Galaxi lathe. Sadly not an upgrade for my lathe.
Re: Nova 1624
Bill Blasic
It is a good upgrade and I've seen posted several who have done it. My friend has one on order. Don't be worried about speed control I've had my DVR 3000 for at least 12 years and pushing the button to change speeds is hardly a problem. I have 5 other VS lathes and it is no bother going back to the DVR, the longer you press the button the faster the speed changes. You can also set 5 different speeds as set speeds. Most people get used to the operation and have no complaint very quickly.
Intresting *LINK*
David Walser
I went to Teknatool USA's website, and it appears that the newest version of the 1624 upgrade has a knob to adjust the speed. I say 'appears' because the text does not match the picture of the upgrade kit -- which clearly shows a knob. I suspect they put in the new picture without updating the text.
Nova 1624 upgrade
Re: Nova 1624
Jim Barbour
I'm with Bill on the speed change. I've had DVR and DVR XP since they first came out and have not found any issues with the speed. I did make the shift to the XP in part to get the electable speeds. On the XP you have five speed settings, with one fixed at 500 RPM. The others are easily set to whatever you wish.
I have mine set to 200, 500 (the locked one), 1000, 1700, 2600. I have found I do not use any speeds between 200 and 2600 other than the ones I have set, and that going on down below 200 or up above 2600 is both rare and not time consuming. As an example, to go from 200 to 2600 I must hold down one button with one finger, bump another four times with a different finger and then bump the confirm button once. All in all it takes about 4 seconds - perhaps more than the time I would use on a knob adjustment, but not much, and I don't even have to look since I know it is going to a particular speed. I turn and at 1700 or 2600 a lot, texture at 500 and sand at 500 or 200 on most pieces.
If you wish to turn at 27 different speeds this is probably a hassle, but I have found that the five presets do the job for me.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am generally not turning unbalanced green wood, and my work ranges from cuff link inserts (roughly 3/4" X 1/4" up to 26" platters with most work in the 2" - 10" range for spindle work and 6" - 20" range for face work. If I were production turning green wood bowls 20" and larger, or turning large deep hollow vessels, I would likely want a different lathe. But I am not so this works for me.
Re: Intresting
Ralph Lindberg
David, that's probably because the current version of the DVR motor has a knob (optical encoder) vrs the buttons.
What I don't know is if the new version still has speed memories or not