Homemade Nova Ornamental Turner

Some years ago Teknatool made an ornamental turning attachment for the Nova DVR lathe. Only a small number were made and it is no longer available, and those that come up for sale occasionally are in the USA and very expensive. I decided to have a go at making one using a MT2 boring head from a metal lathe with some parts that I had lying around.

 

This is the result of what I made, unfortunately not as successful as I had hoped. With the chuck mounted in the banjo it is not rigid enough, this may be down to the small contact patch or as a friend said the design is just not rigid enough. I am going to see about an alternative mounting for the cross slide direct to the bed or I may completely replace the cross slide with the heavy duty one from my Rose Engine and just swap it back and forth.