I'm reposting this here from a thread on woodcentral for the benefit of AAW. As discussed in that thread, I made the decision to purchase a Nova Comet2 lathe primarily to use as a travel lathe in our RV. Primary considerations were 12” capacity, weight, and variable speed down to 250rpm. This lathe is only 75lbs, and has a small footprint to store (6” front-back, 32” width, and 14.5” tall). The lathe arrived a few days ago and I’ve turned several objects, and made a knock-down travel stand for it. Below are my comments on the lathe for others benefit.
For perspective, this is my third lathe. I initially purchased a Jet1236 in the mid-90’s and turned on it off and on for 10years. At that point I sold it and upgraded to a Powermatic 3520b which I’ve used more over the last 10yrs, but again more sporatically until this last year when I retired and have since generated more shavings. I’m an intermediate woodturner and have turned several hundreds of objects, mostly ~bowls but some between center work as well.
The summary if you don’t want to bother reading the rest - The Comet2 is a good lathe that meets my expectations. It won’t replace my Powermatic when I’m in the shop, but will allow me to turn while traveling and just move outside at home sometimes when the weather is nice.
Set-up was trivial, it does require the motor to be run at high speed for 1hr to set the brushes which provided time to make a few fixes: File tailstock block and ways to make it easier to slide tailstock on; remove belt cover screw (tedious) and epoxy magnet onto cover to hold closed instead; and ultimately reposition spindle pulley so that belt ran quieter. The handwheel doesn’t have a locking set-screw which concerned me as I often slow the turning by grabbing this but it hasn’t proved to be an issue yet.
I also immediately replaced the live center with an extra real live center/cone that I had, and purchased a 9” Robust tool rest to replace the 6” rest it comes with. The bolt holding the tool rest post height had to be filed as it wasn’t tapped square and had a burr that gouged the post and wouldn’t initially hold. After filing the end of the bolt it holds well and even though the banjo feels like a toy, it does a very good job holding the rest solid.
So far I’ve used it to turn a couple bowls (7.5”x3.5” oak, 7”x2” oak), a couple of plates (9” maple, 11” oak), and a peppermill (8” walnut) along with a few shop accessories. See picture. The lathe has performed well. After quickly learning I couldn’t take the cuts I do on the Powermatic, I’ve found it to have plenty of power on all speed ranges. In fact, after the stalls on the initial bowl while learning to take lighter cuts it hasn’t stalled on any other projects (including the 11” plate) and I find I remove wood plenty quickly with sharp gouges. The quill only advances an inch or so with a Jacobs chuck in it so drilling a peppermill takes a few repositionings, additionally when under load the quill does not advance and retract very smoothly. I think I’ll have to watch the pressure I put on the quill.
I also made a knock-down stand for traveling with the lathe in our RV. See picture. The legs are angled 11.5deg out in the front and back, and 5deg out side to side. The stand is solid front to back, so the lathe balances bowl blanks pretty well. Again this is a relative comment, I can’t spin uneven blanks up like on the Powermatic, but as long as I start large objects relatively round it works well enough to true them and then I can run speeds up as much as I want. The 5deg leg angle along the axis of the lathe is insufficient and should have probably been ~10deg along with more than the 3” purchase where they intersect the table. The table wobbled along the axis some until I added a gusset across the back which eliminated this issue.
Bottom line – the Comet2 is a solid midi lathe that performs very well after minor tune-up. It’s the smallest and lightest of the 12” ones I looked at, and a very good deal at $400 including a G3 scroll chuck. I’m glad I purchased it. If I wasn’t moving it around I think I’d still go with the Jet 1221 for additional heft, ability to run speed down to 60rpm, and the ability to run 300rpm-1000rpm without changing the belt positioning…but then again the Jet is twice the cost of the Comet2… I’d definitely recommend the Comet2 to anyone looking at it seriously. It appears well built enough that I expect to say the same thing in a few years, I hope so.
For perspective, this is my third lathe. I initially purchased a Jet1236 in the mid-90’s and turned on it off and on for 10years. At that point I sold it and upgraded to a Powermatic 3520b which I’ve used more over the last 10yrs, but again more sporatically until this last year when I retired and have since generated more shavings. I’m an intermediate woodturner and have turned several hundreds of objects, mostly ~bowls but some between center work as well.
The summary if you don’t want to bother reading the rest - The Comet2 is a good lathe that meets my expectations. It won’t replace my Powermatic when I’m in the shop, but will allow me to turn while traveling and just move outside at home sometimes when the weather is nice.
Set-up was trivial, it does require the motor to be run at high speed for 1hr to set the brushes which provided time to make a few fixes: File tailstock block and ways to make it easier to slide tailstock on; remove belt cover screw (tedious) and epoxy magnet onto cover to hold closed instead; and ultimately reposition spindle pulley so that belt ran quieter. The handwheel doesn’t have a locking set-screw which concerned me as I often slow the turning by grabbing this but it hasn’t proved to be an issue yet.
I also immediately replaced the live center with an extra real live center/cone that I had, and purchased a 9” Robust tool rest to replace the 6” rest it comes with. The bolt holding the tool rest post height had to be filed as it wasn’t tapped square and had a burr that gouged the post and wouldn’t initially hold. After filing the end of the bolt it holds well and even though the banjo feels like a toy, it does a very good job holding the rest solid.
So far I’ve used it to turn a couple bowls (7.5”x3.5” oak, 7”x2” oak), a couple of plates (9” maple, 11” oak), and a peppermill (8” walnut) along with a few shop accessories. See picture. The lathe has performed well. After quickly learning I couldn’t take the cuts I do on the Powermatic, I’ve found it to have plenty of power on all speed ranges. In fact, after the stalls on the initial bowl while learning to take lighter cuts it hasn’t stalled on any other projects (including the 11” plate) and I find I remove wood plenty quickly with sharp gouges. The quill only advances an inch or so with a Jacobs chuck in it so drilling a peppermill takes a few repositionings, additionally when under load the quill does not advance and retract very smoothly. I think I’ll have to watch the pressure I put on the quill.
I also made a knock-down stand for traveling with the lathe in our RV. See picture. The legs are angled 11.5deg out in the front and back, and 5deg out side to side. The stand is solid front to back, so the lathe balances bowl blanks pretty well. Again this is a relative comment, I can’t spin uneven blanks up like on the Powermatic, but as long as I start large objects relatively round it works well enough to true them and then I can run speeds up as much as I want. The 5deg leg angle along the axis of the lathe is insufficient and should have probably been ~10deg along with more than the 3” purchase where they intersect the table. The table wobbled along the axis some until I added a gusset across the back which eliminated this issue.
Bottom line – the Comet2 is a solid midi lathe that performs very well after minor tune-up. It’s the smallest and lightest of the 12” ones I looked at, and a very good deal at $400 including a G3 scroll chuck. I’m glad I purchased it. If I wasn’t moving it around I think I’d still go with the Jet 1221 for additional heft, ability to run speed down to 60rpm, and the ability to run 300rpm-1000rpm without changing the belt positioning…but then again the Jet is twice the cost of the Comet2… I’d definitely recommend the Comet2 to anyone looking at it seriously. It appears well built enough that I expect to say the same thing in a few years, I hope so.
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