Nova Voyager drill press

[David T gray]

so run out is <.001 4'' from the Albrecht chuck i checked it a few times my dial goes down to .00005 the rod i used is -.005 , +.0015 so well within tolerance for the rod. the chuck is so smooth and grabs so perfectly really nice chuck. the manual stop for depth is pretty crap kinda a after thought it really is crap mine came bent so it just kinda rubs when moving the quill up and down im going to remove it is usable, but yeah its just that the lowes porter cable i have the manual depth is better.

[mark mcfarlane]

so run out is <.001 4'' from the Albrecht chuck i checked it a few times my dial goes down to .00005 the rod i used is -.005 , +.0015 so well within tolerance for the rod. the chuck is so smooth and grabs so perfectly really nice chuck. the manual stop for depth is pretty crap kinda a after thought it really is crap mine came bent so it just kinda rubs when moving the quill up and down im going to remove it is usable, but yeah its just that the lowes porter cable i have the manual depth is better.

David, have you put this thing to work yet? Impressions?

[David T gray]

David, have you put this thing to work yet? Impressions?

so after about 1k holes drilled one problem i found was the bearing that holds the height adjust has burnt its self to death it was seated wrong . every thing else is good

[mark mcfarlane]

so after about 1k holes drilled one problem i found was the bearing that holds the height adjust has burnt its self to death it was seated wrong . every thing else is good

Thanks for the update David. Did you call Teknatool? Their proposed remedy?

FWIW, from their website it looks like they are still in pre-production mode. One QC problem maybe isn't too bad on a new tool.

[sean murray]

Thanks for the update David. Did you call Teknatool? Their proposed remedy?

FWIW, from their website it looks like they are still in pre-production mode. One QC problem maybe isn't too bad on a new tool.

I have this drill press and I love it , I had the Powermatic 2800b before this and it was junk compared to this it just had no power the belts would just slip when any sort of torque was applied. Yesterday I was drilling and tapping into steel the tapping function was really cool it taps in til it feels resistance then backs off a bit then advances it does the a few times until it's through , today I ran it hard and drilled about 140 holes 2 1/8" x 5 3/4" deep in end grain cedar with no problems and it was faster than the Powermatic, the same job on the Powermatic would almost burn out the belts completely I could only drill about 200 holes before I had to replace the belts on it .
I will say that Powermatic were great to deal with and they sent me new belts and replaced the machine for me but it just wasn't up for production work like I was doing. I like my DVR so much that I ordered the DVR Galaxy lathe to replace my Jet 1642 I hope to get that this weekend.

[Michael Koons]

Folks, dusting off a few month old thread... Has anyone had any further experience since this June thread? I found the following on Youtube and it's a great video to show the capabilities...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PvDExhAOC8

It looks like they're still in pre-production. If anyone has any experiences to share, please do. I may wait few months to get to production but all-in-all, it looks like a nice machine and good alternative to the others out there today.

[Prabha Gopinath]

I placed an order with Teknatools approx five weeks ago with the assurance that the DP would ship within two weeks. It is now three weeks past the original ship date with no updates from Teknatool.

They only provide a status update if I email them and the message is always the same - "we are out two weeks; the warehouse and shipping managers are trying to catch up".

These days, when everyone presumably has a CRM tool to manage customer contacts and SAP (or equivalent) to manage their warehouses this level of lousy comms is hard to comprehend.

That being said, I am looking forward to receiving the DP and will post feedback.

I sold off my Arboga gear head DP when I moved from Minneapolis to Fresno and have been looking for some more "modern" and better suited to woodworking. The Arboga was fantastic but very heavy - didnt help that the original owner had bolted it to a 2'x4' steel plate 1/2" thick.

Prabha

[Michael Koons]

This is disappointing. I was looking forward to this DP but it looks like it's been hard for these guys to get it launched. Any news from them?

[Robert Cowan]

Does anyone have an update on this? I see them listed as 'in-stock' at a few places online.

[Van Huskey]

If you want one you might try calling Tool Nut.

I played with one of these at the dealer before Christmas and it immediately became my favorite wood drill press. I would add a better woodworking table and a keyless chuck but other than that it was REALLY impressive. The electronics concern me but they seem to work fine for the DVR lathes and honestly if it weren't for the lathes being on the market so long I wouldn't consider them now. It is a fair jump in price from the 2800b when you add shipping but I think it is a quantum leap for woodworking drill presses.

[Robert Cowan]

Cool, good to know. I was planning on adding a keyless chuck to whatever I get. It's only $100 more than the 2800B though right? I guess the Powermatic doesn't have an additional shipping charge, which is strange. You'd think the 2800B would weigh the same or more.

[Van Huskey]

Cool, good to know. I was planning on adding a keyless chuck to whatever I get. It's only $100 more than the 2800B though right? I guess the Powermatic doesn't have an additional shipping charge, which is strange. You'd think the 2800B would weigh the same or more.

The key is Powermatic has "free" residential liftgate delivery on all their machines so you are at $100 more plus the cost of shipping, plus a keyless chuck which the PM has so the difference is NOT insignificant but the Voyager is a much more useful tool based on the information about it and my playing with it for 30 minutes. For me many of the bells and whistles are true time savers not just pretty.

[Robert Cowan]

Ah OK. I had never considered the Powermatic because I didn't want to spend that much on a drill press. But I agree with you, the features aren't just flashy, they would be very useful. I drill in pretty much every material. I would say it's an even split between wood, metal, and plastics. I also do a lot of tapping in metal, so the features would really help me out. The Powermatic is just a bigger and heavier version of everything else out there, and I couldn't justify the extra cost.

[David T gray]

i gotta agree at first i thought it would be gimmicky but i use the programmed settings for drill speed every time now.

[Robert Cowan]

David, that's really great to hear! I think this will end up being my next drill press. If I get one, I'll be putting out a lot of videos showing off the features. I have a YouTube channel and would love to show off what it can do, since there's not a lot online right now of it actually in action.