Nova Voyager drill press

[Ben Rivel]

Anyone else have one of these yet? There needs to be more reviews out there on it. Makes it seem like no one is buying them.

[Martin Wasner]

Acme Tools is selling them now.

[Ben Rivel]

Acme Tools is selling them now.

Noticed that. Might consider one later this year if AcmeTools does another 15-20% off coupon and I start seeing some more reviews from actual owners around the net.

[Bruce Page]

Woodcraft is also selling them now.

[Wayne Jolly]

This sounds like an interesting and capable drill press, but I think I would wait for a few years to see how they hold up. Especially the electronics. It's all I need to spend a bundle on something with electronics in it, and have them go bad again.


Wayne

[Van Huskey]

This sounds like an interesting and capable drill press, but I think I would wait for a few years to see how they hold up. Especially the electronics. It's all I need to spend a bundle on something with electronics in it, and have them go bad again.


Wayne

Normally, I would be in this camp too (although not sure why considering even my hand held drills have electronic brains now) but the fact that Nova has been building their lathes for many years with DVR motors and supporting electronics and they have proven to be robust allays the majority of my concerns.

[Ben Rivel]

This sounds like an interesting and capable drill press, but I think I would wait for a few years to see how they hold up. Especially the electronics. It's all I need to spend a bundle on something with electronics in it, and have them go bad again.


Wayne

Im in the same frame of thought.

[Martin Wasner]

Noticed that. Might consider one later this year if AcmeTools does another 15-20% off coupon and I start seeing some more reviews from actual owners around the net.

I've got a salesman I work with there, I can send you his info if you want.

[Ben Rivel]

I've got a salesman I work with there, I can send you his info if you want.

Thanks for the offer but seriously the last person Id want to hear a "review" from would be a salesman. Its bad enough that a majority of the existing reviews sound to me like they're from compensated reviewers or resellers looking to move the product.

[Patrick Lesher]

I just picked up a lightly used Nova today. I haven't had much time with it but so far it is a beast. It is so smooth and quiet compared to my old one and probably weighs 2X. The smart start looks like it will be really handy for repeat holes and I actually like it giving me suggestions for rpms. I also like that it notices when things go sideways ( vibration, load, etc ) and shuts down ( I haven't tried this yet ).

The only feature, so far, I wish it did have was actually electronically stopping the bit from going deeper when it hits the set stop. It beeps/flashes at you as you get close, and stops the motor, but if you don't have the manual stop set you can still end up drilling a little deeper.

I do wish the head housing was not plastic and at least aluminum to give it a bit more of a polished feel. The main dial on the front is a little wiggly and just doesn't have a sturdy feel like the table, base, and huge post.

[Robert Cowan]

I actually JUST got one this weekend too. I'm doing a full video on it (unboxing, initial impressions) because I'm a YouTuber and that's what we do :-) But so far so good. The software is a bit clunky, but that's to be expected. The drill itself seems solid. The chuck has a bit of runout, but I think only around 0.0025, which is fine for a stock chuck. The quill itself is around 0.00025 or less, even when fully extended. More tests coming. But so far so good.

[Brian Tymchak]

I actually JUST got one this weekend too. I'm doing a full video on it (unboxing, initial impressions) because I'm a YouTuber and that's what we do :-)

Looking forward to that! Thanks Robert.

[Adam Merritt]

They had a demo on these at my local Rockler a few weeks ago. I wasn't able to make it, and am not in the market, but they looked really interesting. I am a techie by nature, so this definitely stood out as something I would want if I didn't already have a large drill press.

[CPeter James]

How much torque at low speeds. I used 1 1/8" bits in steel. Would it turn that? One of my present machines is an on Delta 17" with 1hp 3 phase motor and VFD and the slow speed pulley set. That will turn the 1 1/8" bit. It has power down feed. I don't use it much, but it does work and you can set the release for depth control.
CPeter

[Van Huskey]

How much torque at low speeds. I used 1 1/8" bits in steel. Would it turn that?

Digitally controlled variable reluctance motors have huge amounts of low speed torque compared to a 2 or 4 pole (3600/1700rpm) AC induction motor but the induction motor on your DP has the advantage of torque multiplication due to being geared down to the spindle the DVR is direct drive so it has no torque multiplier.
On to more useful tidbits. IIRC the maximum steel drill size recommended for a Morse 2 taper is 7/8" so from a Machinist's Handbook approach the #2 taper would say the 1 1/8" is too large how conservative these figures are I dunno. Now the Voyager has a cool feature which constantly shows the motor load in percentage a test was done with a 7/8" bit in 1045 steel which has a Brinell around 200 and the press was at 50% load so it has plenty more power but will the chuck slip?

This DP has far more power than you will ever need in a WWing DP but the taper size is probably going to limit it large hole punching ability is harder steels.