About a week ago I was in the process of turning when all of a sudden I would hit the start switch and the lathe (Nova Comet 2) would hesitate or require me to turn the piece to get the motor going. Then I noticed that under a load the motor would slow down more than seemed right. Then-- just listening to the motor while under no load the speed would vary.
Called Teknatool service and the tech there decided, with out a shadow of a doubt the variable speed control was the culprit, or to be much more particular a wire to the speed controller was the problem. Now, I'm not an electrical engineer but it would seem to me that controlling the speed on an electrical motor requires resistance which creates heat so---chances are the wire is going bad due to heat build up. Basically it's frying. I haven't pulled the thing apart yet seeing as though the tech promised me a new control switch but it seems to be kind of slow forthcoming. Just wondering about the logic of all this and whether I want to schedule the exploratory surgery just to take a look. With the snow and cold weather down here not being able to spin wood is making me cranky.