Kendallqn
Member
I purchased a Comet II from WoodTurningz a couple of weeks ago. I received it on a Friday evening, and was excited to get it set up and running. Much to my surprise it was very noisy and had a lot of vibration. I immediately contacted NOVA thru there website and put in a ticket for support. The tech emailed me on Monday telling me to try adjusting the brushes on the motor. I did and it didn't help. On Tuesday he told me to check the belt alignment, I did and nothing again. Nothing on Wednesday. Thursday I was told to ship the motor to them and they would look at it.
Were talking about a brand new lathe here. Well I decided that wasn't the kind of customer service I was looking for. I called Woodturningz and explained what was going on and that I was going to return the lathe. The manager there asked me if he could give it a try and call NOVA for me. Later that day the President of NOVA USA called me. He asked me what was going on and I explained to him that I was not satisfied with the lathe. He gave me the option of returning it for a refund or sending me another lathe out. He assured me that it was not common for these to make noise and vibrate, and since I bought the lathe for the attachments and the size I decided to try another lathe.
The Lathe I received is a different model number. The first was a 46000 this is a 46300. It is a newer updated model. It is also A VERY Nice Lathe. Very smooth and quiet, and the new cover motor and switch are definite improvements.
The motor has a much beefier brush housing around it than the original. You can recognize the difference because the old model had a black brush housing and the new one is silver.
The switch on the new model is now a push button and is larger and has a protective clear cover over it that protects it from water that might be on your hands when wet sanding. A Nice touch.
The belt cover now has a Knob you unscrew to open instead of a slot you needed the supplied tool to open. I thought the plastic cover on both was a bit cheap feeling when I saw it. But it functions well and does the job as intended. The design is excellent as it allows you to easily change the belts even with huge hands.
The Bed and tailstock are both well designed and work as intended. You can add bed extensions if needed to increase the distance between centers. The bed is drilled and tapped with 4 attachment points and a machined face, to assure a positive fit and good alignment.
The best feature is the Versatool Coupler system this lathe has available. Although advertising shows a bunch of tools you can attach to the lathe, the grinder is the only one I could find anywhere actually available at this time. I tried to buy the belt sander attachment with the machine but was later told it wasn't available yet. The grinder attachment Works well and is nice for those quick touch ups when your in the middle of turning something. However if you use a fingernail jig or want to have a decent angle rest under the wheel, which is very much needed, you will need to make a shelf to attach to the supplied 4 bolt holes on the off side of the headstock. In order to mount the fingernail jig in the videos shown on You-tube you will need this shelf. They don't seem to sell one for it even though they have one they are using in that video. I made one out of 1/8 inch plate and it bolted right up and works great. While the 6 inch stone they give you with the kit is fine, I have ordered a CBN Wheel for it to improve it and see how it will work with the lathe. (I'll keep you poster on the outcome)
The potential for this system is fantastic. They show a number of tools they are working on for it. I will be testing each of them as they come available. In the pipeline are a disk sander, a belt sander , A flexible shaft drive, a whetstone and a wire brush.
Your imagination and ability to have somebody make the tools is the only limit to its potential. I am having a 42 inch belt sander attachment made for it to use in knife making as I write this review. Also keep in mind that the belt sander attachment they are working on and show in the videos, could also be used as a sharpening system by using the shelf and mounting your rests and jigs to it. With the right belts you could have a system Similar to the Robert Sorby system with the advantage of running in both forward and reverse and at much slower speeds than his.
I have turned a couple of bowls and three or four pens now on it. And after dealing with the initial frustration, I can honestly say I Love this lathe and would recommend it to anyone looking for a modestly priced midi lathe. Make sure that you are buying the newer updated version and I think you will love it as well. I'm sure the older one was normally a good product as well but as I had problems with it and now have the newer one I can only review and recommend it. The folks at Woodturningz were excellent to work with through it all and I would also feel confident in recommending them as a place to buy one. And while I was a bit disappointed with the customer service at NOVA. Once I got past the online ticket problems and spoke to the president, he was nothing but helpful and did exactly what he said he would do to fix the problem.
Were talking about a brand new lathe here. Well I decided that wasn't the kind of customer service I was looking for. I called Woodturningz and explained what was going on and that I was going to return the lathe. The manager there asked me if he could give it a try and call NOVA for me. Later that day the President of NOVA USA called me. He asked me what was going on and I explained to him that I was not satisfied with the lathe. He gave me the option of returning it for a refund or sending me another lathe out. He assured me that it was not common for these to make noise and vibrate, and since I bought the lathe for the attachments and the size I decided to try another lathe.
The Lathe I received is a different model number. The first was a 46000 this is a 46300. It is a newer updated model. It is also A VERY Nice Lathe. Very smooth and quiet, and the new cover motor and switch are definite improvements.
The motor has a much beefier brush housing around it than the original. You can recognize the difference because the old model had a black brush housing and the new one is silver.
The switch on the new model is now a push button and is larger and has a protective clear cover over it that protects it from water that might be on your hands when wet sanding. A Nice touch.
The belt cover now has a Knob you unscrew to open instead of a slot you needed the supplied tool to open. I thought the plastic cover on both was a bit cheap feeling when I saw it. But it functions well and does the job as intended. The design is excellent as it allows you to easily change the belts even with huge hands.
The Bed and tailstock are both well designed and work as intended. You can add bed extensions if needed to increase the distance between centers. The bed is drilled and tapped with 4 attachment points and a machined face, to assure a positive fit and good alignment.
The best feature is the Versatool Coupler system this lathe has available. Although advertising shows a bunch of tools you can attach to the lathe, the grinder is the only one I could find anywhere actually available at this time. I tried to buy the belt sander attachment with the machine but was later told it wasn't available yet. The grinder attachment Works well and is nice for those quick touch ups when your in the middle of turning something. However if you use a fingernail jig or want to have a decent angle rest under the wheel, which is very much needed, you will need to make a shelf to attach to the supplied 4 bolt holes on the off side of the headstock. In order to mount the fingernail jig in the videos shown on You-tube you will need this shelf. They don't seem to sell one for it even though they have one they are using in that video. I made one out of 1/8 inch plate and it bolted right up and works great. While the 6 inch stone they give you with the kit is fine, I have ordered a CBN Wheel for it to improve it and see how it will work with the lathe. (I'll keep you poster on the outcome)
The potential for this system is fantastic. They show a number of tools they are working on for it. I will be testing each of them as they come available. In the pipeline are a disk sander, a belt sander , A flexible shaft drive, a whetstone and a wire brush.
Your imagination and ability to have somebody make the tools is the only limit to its potential. I am having a 42 inch belt sander attachment made for it to use in knife making as I write this review. Also keep in mind that the belt sander attachment they are working on and show in the videos, could also be used as a sharpening system by using the shelf and mounting your rests and jigs to it. With the right belts you could have a system Similar to the Robert Sorby system with the advantage of running in both forward and reverse and at much slower speeds than his.
I have turned a couple of bowls and three or four pens now on it. And after dealing with the initial frustration, I can honestly say I Love this lathe and would recommend it to anyone looking for a modestly priced midi lathe. Make sure that you are buying the newer updated version and I think you will love it as well. I'm sure the older one was normally a good product as well but as I had problems with it and now have the newer one I can only review and recommend it. The folks at Woodturningz were excellent to work with through it all and I would also feel confident in recommending them as a place to buy one. And while I was a bit disappointed with the customer service at NOVA. Once I got past the online ticket problems and spoke to the president, he was nothing but helpful and did exactly what he said he would do to fix the problem.
