Woo Hoo! Nova 1624-44 lathe

Had a bunch of imaging orders over the last few weeks after a successful shoot.  That and a discounted sale price allowed me to pull the trigger on the purchase of a larger lathe, the Nova 1624-44.

First impressions.  I have made a couple of 14-15" turnings on this so far.  Honestly I am still getting a feel for it.  I do miss a couple of niceties from my Rikon ( which a really nice woman purchased the other day ).  One is the dead center eject from the tailstock.  No such thing on this new lathe.  Have to use a push rod.  Speaking of which, the push rod was simply that, a rod of steel.  I grabbed a wooden bottle stopper handle that didn't pass muster, drilled it out and viola', a decent handle for the rod.  

It was nice that the tailstock used the 2mt dead center I had purchased to go with the stock one of the Rikon as I like the extra room it allows me when cleaning up the end of a piece.   The box wasn't kidding, this lathe is heavy for a single person to assemble at 248lbs.  It was a struggle, but I was able to do it safe and sanely, but I have decent strength and mobility.  It would have been better with two people, but my wife was best left out of the process and is like 100lbs wet.  Though when you compare this to the Rikon at 84lbs for a lathe twice its size it is pretty light.  From the image above you can see my first attempt at adding weight.  That's a 50lb iron plate hung beneath the lathe. I am looking for the other one in the yard somewhere.  Once I find a permanent home for the Nova, I expect to bolt it to the slab.  This is all necessitated by the fact that the lathe does dance a bit with the large rough cut blanks I am rounding out on it.  The image shows a decent size hunk of Ash, a rarity around here.

This brings up the WoodRiver chuck with the large jaws I got at the same time I bought the lathe. Had to as the headstock uses a 1 1/4" 8 tpi thread as opposed to the 1" 8 tpi thread on the Rikon.   The two truly annoying things about the lathe ( which may have a fix that I haven't found yet ) are, the proximity of the tool rest lock arm and the tool rest clamp ( they interfere with each other ) and that the tail piece requires fiddling to get it back onto the lathe bed after removing. Small things, but had to mention them.  Also the belt in the headstock is a little fussy to change from pulley to pulley.  Have to say the Rikon was just better finished, but what the hell, I want to do larger turnings and this was the best option.  I love this thing.

The WoodRiver chuck is a little undocumented.  Meaning, there are not directions for how to shape the tenon for best grip with it.  I will go back and check, but so far, no bueno. 

Big Ash black before hollowing and its field trip across the yard.

The big ash blank is now roughed out, hollowed and sealed.  It has a few grass stains after it decided it needed to be "free" and zipped across the driveway and yard after slipping its WoodRiver bonds and escaping.  Thankfully it missed the dog.

Update-  The WoodRiver chuck does give a little flyer inside the chuck package providing guidance on sizing the tenon.  I looked online for this documentation and it doesn't seem to exist.