Oh no – the lathe is broken
Recently I was forced into making a lathe upgrade to my trusty Nova 3000 lathe. This is a lathe that has served me well. I bought it second-hand for the grand total of $500 about eight years ago. Since then I have turned countless items on it. Everything from pens to goblets to large bowls. Actually pushing the limits on large bowls is probably what got me into trouble.
The problem arose while I was working on a small bowl. Suddenly the bowl stopped spinning even though the motor was still running. At first I thought it was a broken belt. As I checked things out though I realized that the shaft on the motor was broken. What I was working at the time certainly did not cause that. I believe it must have been wear and tear that built up over time.
Repair Options
Checking around it became apparent that the motor was beyond repair. I would have to get a new motor in order to get the lathe working again. Looking into motors I realized that just replacing it with a similar motor was going to be expensive and complicated by the 3/4″ shaft size on the original which seems to be fairly uncommon. An intriguing option turned out to be a motor that Teknatool sells as an upgrade to the Nova 1624 lathe. The Nova 1624 is what they replaced the Nova 3000 with several years ago and it is a very similar lathe. This motor has their DVR technology that includes electronic variable speed, reverse and a few more options. A call to customer service gave me the information that the upgrade motor could be made to work with my Nova 3000 lathe. Shipping from the USA and the exchange rate with the US dollar however convinced me to try and source it locally. As it turned out our local dealer was back-ordered but I was able to order it on Amazon with free shipping included.
Complications
Once the motor arrived a few more complications became apparent. One problem was that the flange for mounting the motor has a different bolt pattern than the new motor. There were indentations on the motor that matched the pattern on the flange so I solved the problem by drilling and tapping threads to mount the flange and it worked well enough.
The next problem was that the shaft on the new motor is 7/8″ in diameter compared to 3/4″ on the Nova 3000 so my old pulley did not fit.
I tried boring out the mounting hole on the pulley but wound up making a mess of it and ruining the pulley. Eventually I had to contact Teknatool customer service again. They recommended replacing the pulley, key (for the shaft) and flange with the ones from the 1624 lathe. Since I had already mounted the motor on my old flange we decided that I only needed the pulley and and key. When those arrived I attempted to mount the pulley myself but it was quite a tight fit. I got stuck with the pulley only halfway on the motor. A visit to a local machine solved that problem. They were able to put it on a hydraulic press to get it the rest of the way on. After that it was a pretty simple matter of just putting things back the same way I took them off.
Success – the lathe is working!
I have been playing with it for few days now and I am pretty happy with how it works. Being able to change the speed with a twist of the knob instead of having to change the belt position every time is a huge improvement. It also has reverse which seems to be handy while sanding pieces on the lathe. I should probably get some grub screws for my chucks to help secure them when running in reverse. There are also a number of preset buttons that allow for quickly setting a particular speed.
One little irritation is that I use an auto switch for my dust collector. It turns on the collector when it senses current from one of the tools being switched on. Unfortunately the control panel on the lathe draws enough power, even when the lathe is not actually running, to activate the dust collector. Switching it off and on manually is something I’ll have to get used to. Overall though I’m pretty happy with it. I expect that a larger and heavier lathe is in my future at some point but with this working there is no need to rush.
Thanks for writing this piece. Just bought a 3000 and suspect that the motor is coming to the end of it’s life. You will save me a great deal of frustration. Living in Alaska, everything takes twice as long to ship and at a higher cost. Again, thanks
Glad it helped Ruben, I found the lack of online information really frustrating at the time so that was part of the reason for writing this.
Hi there, the exact thing has happened to my 3000 lathe, I am looking at doing the same refit that you have done, the only thing is im a little confused about the two models that Striatech do, one with a 600 base speed (sku53001) and the other with a 1800 base speed (sku53003), which one did you buy? and is one more suitable than the other, I like turning large bowls, hollow forms and boxes? what would you recommend? thanks!
Hi Dexter, I’m not sure about those two motors. Here is the link to the one that I used: https://www.teknatool.com/product/nova-dvr-upgrade-for-1624/. The sku number on that is 53101. It was easier for me, as far as shipping was concerned, to order it from Amazon but in the end I had to order a few parts from Teknatool directly to make everything work so I’m not sure how much I saved in then end.
Can you tell me the size of the master fuse in the nova DVD 3000 lathe. Mine blows the fuse when you turn on the on button and no music comes on either .i have replaced the circuit board and control panel.i would love to have some answers thanks Donal coonan.
Hi, Thank you for posting!
I picked up a Nova 3000 in great shape, but missing the motor. The person I bought it from said the guy took the motor he had replaced and left the mounting bracket and pulley. I actually have a 3/4HP Craftsman with the correct shaft (may be short), but not the correct mounting.
Wonder if you found replacements that weren’t part of the DVR kit? I did find an original motor for the 1624, from someone who had replaced with a DVR. but he wants $300 and I’d have to drive 350 miles 1 way… I’m working to see if I can pick it up cheaper. I think the regular replacement motor is available for $470 with pulley, for the 1624. Perhaps that will get discounted pretty soon as people move to the variable speed.
FWIW – I’m in no hurry. I bought it because I wanted the Vicmarc chuck w/3 sets of jaws and the 3 Sorby, 3 Henry Taylor, chisels for $120. I was outfitting an old 1HP Duramax/Craftsman lathe and thought it might be better to apply the $30 for the proper adapter(3/4×16) for the chuck to a motor for the much better lathe.
Thanks for the info!
I pretty much just either reused the original parts or used parts from the kit. I remember I had to do adaption to make the old mounting flange work with the new motor but I can’t remember the exact details anymore. There were a few bits pieces I had to get from Teknatool. Mostly the pulley and keeper pin since the shaft size on the 1624 is different than on the 3000. They were also suggesting the mounting flange but I had already worked out a solution for that so I didn’t get it.
I have no idea. I never came across any fuses while I had the lathe and I sold it last year so there is nothing I can check. Music? Is that something auto-corrected or mis-translated?
Thank you!
Hi Cris how much is a variable speed kit for a nova 3000