Nova 1624 DVR motor upgrade arrived....

[Adam Petersen]

with no instructions. Of course. I've been waiting 4 months for this thing, ordered October 16th, and it arrives without instructions. Nothing on the website and customer service will NOT answer the phone. I've called a bunch, left messages, tried the online ticket, tried the Facebook messenger. For all the people upset with Laguna service, I'm surprised people aren't more vocal about Teknatool USA. This isn't my first go around with them.

Anyways, I wanted to reach out to see if anyone had instructions for this in PDF or just scanned in that they could email me. If anyone out there is willing to help a brother out, please PM me.

Thank you.

Adam

[Sid Matheny]

Well that sucks and I looked and could not find a manual either. Good luck!

[Adam Petersen]

Lathe1.jpgI finally got through. They emailed me a PDF of the instruction manual. Unfortunately I noticed the motor shipped without a terminal box as well. I had to take photos of the items received, my receipt, packaging label, and serial number and send them to them. They'll have to send me parts or a new motor. Also unhappy to see the motor shaft under the protective shrink wrap was rusty. See the pics. What a terrible experience.

[Adam Petersen]

Well, they were supposed to get back to me today but they didn't. I can't act surprised. Oh well, I spoke on the phone with Allan Ferguson last night and he was helpful with some advise on the motor. We think this is a newer model without the box hanging as it gets in the way of the head rotation. The wires coming out have the same style sealed...grommets?....that exit the junction box that didn't come with this. There's also nowhere to screw the box on. So....I attached the motor and set it up and used it last night. It works excellent so far.

Some initial impressions besides customer service...

1. She's very quiet and vibration free.
2. The buttons or just okay, I found myself pushing the fwd / rev several times to get it to switch over. Maybe because I had a glove on I couldn't feel the tactile push of the button.
3. Speed control is very easy and sensitive, I love that aspect!

I'll add more impressions with more use.

Adam

[Allan Ferguson]

Good for you. I have the same issues with the push buttons. Then again have not had issues with wood dust getting into those switches. Wood dust in switches have been major headaches for other lathes in the past.

[Tom Brouillette]

The buttons are the only complaint I've had. Other than that, I love it.

[joseph moses]

That will be a nice upgrade when you get it done.

[Ron Page]

Sounds similar to my experience. Mine came with a broken terminal box. Finally got a response from customer service and they sent me a replacement. Meanwhile, I had repaired the original with JBWeld. After looking inside there was no way I wanted to deal with all those wires anyway.

And, the forward/reverse switch gives me fits also. Sounds like it's a universal fail. I do seem to have a little better luck if I'm gentle with my 'pokes' rather that trying to get tough with it.

Love the variable speed though. I just thought it wasn't a bother to change speeds with the old pulley unit. Turns out I just wasn't changing speeds much. I'm all over the place with my speeds now.

ron

[Adam Petersen]

After a little phone tag I think things are resolved. They were going to ship me a whole new unit but I questioned the need a bit and they contacted their R and D people. Turns out they've eliminated the junction box on new units and everything is wired directly into the motor, eliminating that box hanging off. It is at face value a good design improvement from what I've seen and heard (which isn't too much). After some time dealing with them I think their business has a serious communications disconnect. For the US distribution point to not even know things like 1. the manuals are stuck in China to 2. there has been a redesign but no update in the manual yet....well that's just poor communication and teamwork from an international corporation. Maybe they sell more of these overseas and don't think the US market and their US employees deserve to be kept in the light, but it's a poor business model.

That being said, I am excited to use the variable speed. I turned one bowl so far and I agree, I change speeds a lot more! I think it will be worth the effort, though this is all a result of impatience on my part. If I just scrapped my pennies together years ago instead of going cheap and adding on as I went, I'd have a much nicer lathe by now. But I also would have been turning for a year or more while doing so......no use crying over spilt milk, the lathe is very capable now to do most anything I want I think.

Thanks for everyone's comments and assistance.

Adam