A new family member;

[kwgeorge]

Well here I am sitting in a hotel room in Austin. Just a bit ago me and the wife picked up the Nova 3000 lathe from Dan here in Austin. We met him and his wife and there little boy. Very nice people and a great little family he has.

I have rebuilt and taken the Grizzly about as far as I could and I wanted something with just a bit bigger swing and a spindle lock. After lots of research I decided that the Nova 3000 is what I really wanted. I have been watching all the boards hoping one would become available and sure enough it did!

I am already searching around for a new DC motor to convert it to variable speed and am already thinking about what upgrades I can make for it. The lathe has been taken very good care of and looks almost new. For $500 I am very pleased. I plan on keeping the Grizzly for spindle work and such and of course I will keep my mini so with this Nova I will now have 4 running lathe. My just laughs at me and says im out of control!

[Whaler]

Ken
Just how many lathes do you have now?
That Nova was a great find.

[GeekMom]

Congratulations, Ken.

[Jim Boyd]

If she any trouble finding you an asylum we will be glad to help I think there is one down by Del Rio that caters to the little people

[Ken Weaver]

Out of control?? Is that possible?? Good score Ken.

[mudder]

Kenneth,

First off

YOU SUCK!

Welcome to the club of the Nova owners association.

Did you know that you can buy the DVR headstock and tailstock and convert your 3000 to a DVR?

I know that you like to play and engineer things to your liking but the DVR has the constant torque, digital readout and rpm control to within 3 rpm of what you selected.
My personal machine can go as low as 100 rpm and as high as 3495.

It also has something that you will absolutely love and wonder how you ever got along without it. REVERSE!

Just food for thought. I was not aware it could be done until I found a little blurb about it on the nova site. Maybe you can save up and get it when Woodcraft gives you the 10% off at your birthbay month.


Congratulations in the purchase. You will not be disappointed.


Scott

[Black wallnut]

I'd say that you're out of control ! Good thing your turnings show the worth of your tool addiction or she might get you commited.

[dlanicek]

Kenneth,

I hope you enjoy the lathe. I want to see some big bowls from you now!
It must be driving you nuts to be out of town away from your shop with your new toy... err... tool.

Dan

[kwgeorge]

Thanks everyone, I am pretty happy about this purchase.

Scott; Yeah I saw that upgrade on the Nova Web site and I am curious as to how much it is. Seems to me you are pretty much replacing 80% of the lathe with that upgrade. I had decided to get a bigger capacity lathe some time ago and have been shopping. I looked at Oneway, PM, Jet as well as several others. The problem that I have is the weight of these things as my building won’t support that kind of weight. The Nova seemed to be the perfect fit for me. I decided that I would look for a used 3000 as it appears they have been discontinued and I was lucky enough to read Dans post. I really wanted the spindle lock/index system and your right, I love to tinker and all ready am working on a RPM display using an interrupter I am working on, Infrared emitter/detector pair and some circuitry. I have the reverse on the Grizzly and your right I like using it when sanding. I am looking forward to playing with this and getting it all tuned up. Like you say though the DVR upgrade is always an option if I don’t like what I come up with.

Dan; yeah its hard to drive around when I keep looking in the back for sure. I did stop by the Austin Woodcraft and I bought an 1-1/4X8 adapter for my Oneway chuck and also got the Handwheel accessory while I was there. As far as the big bowls, well with those big roughed out bowls you gave me I know I will have a few soon. To bad it is going to take me probably a couple of weeks to rearrange the shop and build a stand.

[mater]

Nice find Ken. I know you will enjoy working with it.

[Ken Massingale]

I'm so *&^%$ jealous I ain't even commenting!

Nah, I'm happy for you Kenneth. Have fun.
ken