[sprior]

I just got this Apprentice Collet Chuck from Craft Supplies. The runout on this thing seems totally unacceptable, it shakes like a hula dancer. Am I missing something? See my Youtube video to see how bad it is.

 

[sprior]

As a double check against an issue with my headstock I put my Supernova chuck with the small jaws on those same threads and chucked in a (bigger) forstner bit. No noticeable runout. So it's gotta be the collet chuck.

 

[sprior]

Frank, your comment made me realize that the chuck wasn't even close to threading far enough to seat against the back plate of the spindle. I just double checked and couldn't spot a defect in the threads (like a stray bump), but the threads bind up on the spindle way before the spindle comes close to bottoming out in the chuck. Looks like a defect in the threading, maybe the piece shifted on the metal lathe when cutting the threads.

 

[sprior]

Yes, that's what I just tried, no collet and no end that holds the collet - looking in the end you can see lots of space where the spindle should still be able to thread in, but the collet threads themselves seem to stop it from going further. It's a dud.

 

[sprior]

Called them this morning, the call went pretty much like:

me: I received my collet chuck this weekend and was defective, wouldn't even screw all the way onto the spindle. My order # is....

them: Sounds like you got a defective piece, I'll have a new one sent out today, we'll check the new one before it goes out, and is it OK if we send the return mailing label to the same email address as the order?

me: yes, thanks.


Can't get much less fuss than that. I had been looking forward to playing with it yesterday, but I'll get over it.

I've got the Nova DVR XP lathe and have been quite happy with it. I've got it on a wooden stand similar to what they suggest in the manual (with a bag of sand on a shelf down below for extra weight). A while back I figured out that the guide plates on the tailstock had shifted and there was no way to reposition/tighten them while it was mounted on my stand, so I took the lathe off and then cut out most of the table top between the bed rails so now I can slide the tailstock up to the head, use a double ended taper to align them, and tighten the alignment plates from underneath. Easy now.

 

[sprior]

I'll admit that I had visions of being told I had to pay for return shipping, waiting for the return to arrive back to them before they'd ship the replacement (or guaranteeing the cross ship on my credit card), and waiting for their normal slow ground delivery for the replacement (she said she'd ship the replacement by 3 day service). All of those things have happened to me by other dealers over the years.

It was nice when I didn't need to have the fight I was prepared for if necessary. The conversation went so fast I completely forgot to ask if I could buy a bag of their stepped dowels and throw that in the box for no additional shipping - oops.

I'm planning to use the collet chuck to try some bottle stoppers. I don't really have much personal use for bottle stoppers, but then I'm such a computer guy I didn't really have a use for pens either and that went totally out of control. So maybe I'll start drinking now.

 

[sprior]

I just googled for that headstock upgrade and it looks like it's almost $1600! That's just a couple of hundred less than a brand new DVR XP sells for on sale (without legs) and then you have an entire second lathe to keep or sell. Did you get the upgrade for less than that?

 

[sprior]

Just got the replacement collet chuck today... and it's identically defective as the first one! Now I'm mad. They even TOLD me on the phone that they were going to check it before it shipped. This new chuck doesn't screw any further onto my headstock than the first one did.

Can someone reassure me that this chuck does in fact fit the Nova DVR XP lathe?

 

[sprior]

I just got off the phone with them. It seems that the customer service rep who talked with me and who promised they'd check the replacement before it was shipped forgot to tell the people who would actually do the checking, so mine was shipped without checking. Then they did hear about a problem and ended up testing their whole stock and found out that LOTS of them were defective. So now they've pulled out the bad ones and have good replacements. Of course they didn't do anything to notify me that I might be getting a bad second one so I was surprised and this will be the second weekend I had planned to play with it and can't. Since I found out so late it was too late for them to ship out another replacement today, so it'll go out tomorrow (Friday) and even overnight shipping wouldn't get to me before Monday.

They gave me a $50 credit for my trouble, but it's still annoying to have to deal with it. Maybe after this fuss I'll start actually needing bottle stoppers after all...