KMCloonan
Member
Apologies in advance for this long post.
Today I received my 4th lathe. It was delivered on a Sunday, which very much surprised me. I can't wait to open it and set it up. I am excited, but also a bit embarrassed that I just received my 4th lathe, when I had received my 3rd lathe only 3 months ago. I have learned a very valuable lesson, and that is to search this site for information regarding various lathes, and not buy anything unless I hear good things about it from the members of this organization.
My 1st lathe was a nice little Jet 1014VS - I liked it a lot. It even had the Jet stand to sit on. For whatever reason, I sold it about 4 years ago and bought my 2nd lathe - a used Nova Comet II. with variable speed and a bed extension. The Comet was an ok lathe. I put a lot of miles on it (a lot for me anyway). The bed extension was mostly unnecessary - I have never turned anything besides pens, and likely never will. I ended up building a platform that sat on the bed extension, and used it as a mini workbench. Earlier this year, the belt on the Comet II was getting pretty worn (mostly because I forgot several times to unlock the spindle lock). I looked for a replacement belt on Teknatool's website. They were out of stock. I wrote to them, asking when the belt would be in stock. They wrote back to me telling me I was better off buying a belt from another company, and provided a link. (This should have been a red flag). I purchased the suggested belt, and then had all kinds of problems disassembling the headstock, removing bearings and the spindle just to change the belt. I got up and running again, but I started thinking about the beating the bearings had taken being pounded on to seat them, so I decided to buy replacement bearings - again I went to the teknatool website, and guess what? The bearings were out of stock. (another red flag).
I decided I would shop for my 3rd lathe. I looked at Rikon, Laguna, Jet, and for some reason I also looked at the Nova 14DR. I let price cloud my decision making. Availability was also a deciding factor. Our local Rockler had a Nova 14DR in stock, so I would save on shipping charges. I drove 30 miles in late June to Rockler and bought the 14DR (my 3rd lathe)
When I got the 14DR home, and down the stairs to my basement shop, I began to unpack it. I immediately noticed that the Tool slide (banjo) casting was flawed. There was a large crack in the casting. I immediately wrote to Teknatool asking for a replacement. I was irritated, but kept unpacking. (By the way. Teknatool did send me a replacement banjo)
I set up the new lathe on my old stand (from my Comet). It fit fine. Then, I tried to change the belt from one pulley to the other. There was no vertical movement in the motor to provide slack to the belt, to allow the change to the other pulley. I ended up pulling the belt off the pulley by pulling on it sideways, and walking it off the pulley. Once the belt was off, the motor was free to move up and down, but when I put the belt back on, I had the same issue. I had to walk the belt back on by pushing on the belt while turning the hand wheel. I lost count of the number of times I pinched my fingers between the belt and the pulley. I went back and forth with the customer service at Teknatool for 2 months, and they basically said I was doing it wrong. I even sent them videos of me trying to wrestle the belt off the pulley. They never responded.
Another thing: in order to change the belt to the other pulley, you had to open the upper access door. No big deal. Then you had to loosen a screw on the side of the lathe, and also loosen a motor mount screw, just to be able to pivot the lower access panel out of the way. It does not swing open - it rotates clockwise on the motor mount screw to expose the lower pulley - this rotation of this metal plate instantly began scraping the paint on the lathe frame. what a terrible design.
The last thing that tipped it in for me was the tool rest. The tool rest is about 6" wide, and has a 1" post that fits into the tool slide. Just like other tool rests on other lathes, you tighten a screw to set the tool rest at the preferred height. The problem here is that the threaded hole the lock handle screws into is loose, so the screw is a sloppy fit - you actually need two hands to pull out the handle, turn it about 1/4 turn , pull it out, turn, etc. The problem is that you also have to hold the tool rest at the desired height, which means you need 3 hands. I ended up disassembling the lock handle, removing the handle and spring, and simply using a phillips screwdriver to tighten the screw while I held the tool rest. This is when I had had enough. Why am I continuing to do workarounds for this lathe?
I wrote to Teknatool and told them that I was extremely disappointed with this lathe (I described all of the reasons above), and that I would like to return it. The head of Customer Service wrote me back, saying he was sorry I was disappointed, but there was nothing they could do. I had to take the lathe back to where I bought it. I brought the lathe back to Rockler last weekend, and they were very gracious, and gave me a full refund.
I then ordered my 4th lathe, which I received today. I now own a Laguna REVO 12|16, and expect it will be my "forever lathe"
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. Thanks also to everyone on this site who share their experiences and knowledge. I hope anyone who may be considering a Nova 14DR will reconsider their choice after reading this, and several other posts I found on this site (unfortunately I found them after I purchased the 14DR).
Happy Turning.
Today I received my 4th lathe. It was delivered on a Sunday, which very much surprised me. I can't wait to open it and set it up. I am excited, but also a bit embarrassed that I just received my 4th lathe, when I had received my 3rd lathe only 3 months ago. I have learned a very valuable lesson, and that is to search this site for information regarding various lathes, and not buy anything unless I hear good things about it from the members of this organization.
My 1st lathe was a nice little Jet 1014VS - I liked it a lot. It even had the Jet stand to sit on. For whatever reason, I sold it about 4 years ago and bought my 2nd lathe - a used Nova Comet II. with variable speed and a bed extension. The Comet was an ok lathe. I put a lot of miles on it (a lot for me anyway). The bed extension was mostly unnecessary - I have never turned anything besides pens, and likely never will. I ended up building a platform that sat on the bed extension, and used it as a mini workbench. Earlier this year, the belt on the Comet II was getting pretty worn (mostly because I forgot several times to unlock the spindle lock). I looked for a replacement belt on Teknatool's website. They were out of stock. I wrote to them, asking when the belt would be in stock. They wrote back to me telling me I was better off buying a belt from another company, and provided a link. (This should have been a red flag). I purchased the suggested belt, and then had all kinds of problems disassembling the headstock, removing bearings and the spindle just to change the belt. I got up and running again, but I started thinking about the beating the bearings had taken being pounded on to seat them, so I decided to buy replacement bearings - again I went to the teknatool website, and guess what? The bearings were out of stock. (another red flag).
I decided I would shop for my 3rd lathe. I looked at Rikon, Laguna, Jet, and for some reason I also looked at the Nova 14DR. I let price cloud my decision making. Availability was also a deciding factor. Our local Rockler had a Nova 14DR in stock, so I would save on shipping charges. I drove 30 miles in late June to Rockler and bought the 14DR (my 3rd lathe)
When I got the 14DR home, and down the stairs to my basement shop, I began to unpack it. I immediately noticed that the Tool slide (banjo) casting was flawed. There was a large crack in the casting. I immediately wrote to Teknatool asking for a replacement. I was irritated, but kept unpacking. (By the way. Teknatool did send me a replacement banjo)
I set up the new lathe on my old stand (from my Comet). It fit fine. Then, I tried to change the belt from one pulley to the other. There was no vertical movement in the motor to provide slack to the belt, to allow the change to the other pulley. I ended up pulling the belt off the pulley by pulling on it sideways, and walking it off the pulley. Once the belt was off, the motor was free to move up and down, but when I put the belt back on, I had the same issue. I had to walk the belt back on by pushing on the belt while turning the hand wheel. I lost count of the number of times I pinched my fingers between the belt and the pulley. I went back and forth with the customer service at Teknatool for 2 months, and they basically said I was doing it wrong. I even sent them videos of me trying to wrestle the belt off the pulley. They never responded.
Another thing: in order to change the belt to the other pulley, you had to open the upper access door. No big deal. Then you had to loosen a screw on the side of the lathe, and also loosen a motor mount screw, just to be able to pivot the lower access panel out of the way. It does not swing open - it rotates clockwise on the motor mount screw to expose the lower pulley - this rotation of this metal plate instantly began scraping the paint on the lathe frame. what a terrible design.
The last thing that tipped it in for me was the tool rest. The tool rest is about 6" wide, and has a 1" post that fits into the tool slide. Just like other tool rests on other lathes, you tighten a screw to set the tool rest at the preferred height. The problem here is that the threaded hole the lock handle screws into is loose, so the screw is a sloppy fit - you actually need two hands to pull out the handle, turn it about 1/4 turn , pull it out, turn, etc. The problem is that you also have to hold the tool rest at the desired height, which means you need 3 hands. I ended up disassembling the lock handle, removing the handle and spring, and simply using a phillips screwdriver to tighten the screw while I held the tool rest. This is when I had had enough. Why am I continuing to do workarounds for this lathe?
I wrote to Teknatool and told them that I was extremely disappointed with this lathe (I described all of the reasons above), and that I would like to return it. The head of Customer Service wrote me back, saying he was sorry I was disappointed, but there was nothing they could do. I had to take the lathe back to where I bought it. I brought the lathe back to Rockler last weekend, and they were very gracious, and gave me a full refund.
I then ordered my 4th lathe, which I received today. I now own a Laguna REVO 12|16, and expect it will be my "forever lathe"
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. Thanks also to everyone on this site who share their experiences and knowledge. I hope anyone who may be considering a Nova 14DR will reconsider their choice after reading this, and several other posts I found on this site (unfortunately I found them after I purchased the 14DR).
Happy Turning.
