Nova Comet II SKU differences

[John Ziebron]

I don't do a lot of turning and most of it happens this time of year. I have an older large Grizzly but 95% of my turnings are small items. So I've been looking at the smaller lathes and am considering the Nova Comet II. On Teknatool's website they show 2 different ones with the SKUs being 46300 and 46303. I have spent too much time looking at the specs for both and see no difference and they don't offer a "compare" feature like some websites. The only difference that I can see is one has a silver front bed and the other is black. Does anyone know what the differences, if any, might be?

[Randy Heinemann]

The only Nova Comet that I see available at stores like Rockler is the Comet 14 DR. The difference between this model and the Comet II that I previously owned is that the motor is 1 HP instead of 3/4 HP; a good thing. I don't know if you can buy directly from Nova so you might be limited to whatever is available in retail walk-in or online stores.

Some feedback from my 4-year ownership and use of the Comet II . . . About 2 years after I bought it t he controller went bad. There are only a couple of things that can go wrong with this lathe; mainly the motor or the controller which is controls the speed of the lather within each speed range. Since the warranty is only 1 year, Nova wouldn't cover the controller. In fact they implied that it was my fault for not having the lathe plugged into a surge protector even though there was no evidence of a power surge. The support guy indicated that, given there were no burn marks inside the controller, it likely just failed. A new controller was $150 at the time I replaced it; about 3 years ago. I'm sure they are more now. I wasn't hard on the lathe. I only turned one piece that exceeded 8" in diameter and mostly I turned smaller items like pens, small bowls in the 5"-6" diameter range. No hollowing forms. I don't know if this experience is common or not.

I loved the lathe but I didn't love spending $150 for a part that I would guess should have lasted much longer than 2 years. Other than experience it's a solid lathe that helped me learn about turning.

Just thought I'd let you know about my experience.