Would you spend $1000 on this ? (Nova Viking Drill Press)

vecair said:
Looks like a state of the art modern drill press with constant torque and all the bells and whistles, I like it!
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I was thinking about this. I am not sure how much it "backs up" when doing tapping, but it needs to be measuring the advance per turn, as opposed to a feed rate, and keep a count, and also keep comparing to a torque that, (to a guy doing it by hand), would signal that things are getting too tight down there. Then the decelerate-stop-reverse out by enough to clear chips, all amounts to quite an exact little dance!

I admit - I do love it all! I set that against how I do not love the price, +the cautions about future support, and whether to be plugging the cash into a little mill-drill would be a better spend. I was thinking a mill-drill is, in concept, all of a precision drill with some (manual) lightweight milling thrown in. If anyone invests in a whole Bridgeport or something, he is likely to want a separate basic DP.

It being from NZ instead of China may go some way to a better future support policy.

[Edit: It seems the Nova Vulcan (floor standing version) has a 3MT spindle and ER32 collet system. It is built to take milling operations when used with an accessory compound table add-on. That makes it a mill-drill (when you spend enough)!
Here-> https://www.teknatool.com/product/vulcan/ ]
 
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graham-xrf said:
I was thinking about this. I am not sure how much it "backs up" when doing tapping, but it needs to be measuring the advance per turn, as opposed to a feed rate, and keep a count, and also keep comparing to a torque that, (to a guy doing it by hand), would signal that things are getting too tight down there. Then the decelerate-stop-reverse out by enough to clear chips, all amounts to quite an exact little dance!

I admit - I do love it all! I set that against how I do not love the price, +the cautions about future support, and whether to be plugging the cash into a little mill-drill would be a better spend. I was thinking a mill-drill is, in concept, all of a precision drill with some (manual) lightweight milling thrown in. If anyone invests in a whole Bridgeport or something, he is likely to want a separate basic DP.

It being from NZ instead of China may go some way to a better future support policy.

[Edit: It seems the Nova Vulcan (floor standing version) has a 3MT spindle and ER32 collet system. It is built to take milling operations when used with an accessory compound table add-on. That makes it a mill-drill (when you spend enough)!
Here-> https://www.teknatool.com/product/vulcan/ ]
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Well looks like it does it electronically just like a CNC might do:) Got to start trusting those pixies sometime, not that I do:)

 
graham-xrf said:
It being from NZ instead of China may go some way to a better future support policy.
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does it specifically say “made in NZ” anywhere? Not where the company is, but where it’s made. I looked and couldn’t find it. Like most proprietary tech you can’t just swap out a new motor if this one goes south it’s pretty much the heart of the thing.
 
I can pretty much guarantee you that its made in China. I can see several items that are exactly the same as my floor mounted Chicago drill press which was made in China, and which has never failed. If the COMPANY stands behind them then its a go for me. Plus I see its been in production for some time and quite a few four and five star reviews. You get what you pay for from China, cheap is cheap the world over, same with quality. Ask me, I have a Chinese aircraft!
 
C-Bag said:
does it specifically say “made in NZ” anywhere? Not where the company is, but where it’s made. I looked and couldn’t find it. Like most proprietary tech you can’t just swap out a new motor if this one goes south it’s pretty much the heart of the thing.
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OK - I was going on post #19.
Agreed, if it messes up, it is pretty much not user fixable. One has to trust in supplier support for years to come.

I confess, I am getting more and more seduced by the videos, like the one in post #22
 
Before making an investment I would see who the dealers are in your area, and ask about the availability of replacement parts. As mentioned in my previous post the electronics may be a stumbling point. Look back at even industrial CNC machines built in the early 2000's or before. Replacement electronics are almost non existent and outrageously priced. The electronics industry moves so fast components become obsolete in a couple years and no longer profitable to build or supply.

20 year old CNC machining centers are being sold for scrap prices because they are no longer supported. It's not a total loss if you to recover the cost of a machine in a commercial setting. A hobby setting is a whole different thing unless you have a money making hobby. I for one am not willing to shell out that kind of money for a machine with a potential working life of only a few years.

As for warranty it's only as good as the company that makes it, and only enforceable in many cases through expensive litigation. Chinese companies that I've dealt with are poor at best when it comes to honoring their warranty. Years ago I purchased an HF hydraulic table. The hydraulic ram went out a little after 3 months. While they did honor the warranty it took over 6 months to get a replacement part. I had a similar problem with a protractor purchased through eBay. That's why to this day I only buy offshore (Chinese) products when they are either the only thing available, or I consider it to be a disposable item
 
First the video, the guy is a whiner, the company seem to spend all of the money on the hi-tech head assembly, the rest of the DP is a cheap Chinese style bench DP.

I have 3 drill presses in the shop, I use all 3 constantly, I build the Franken-Drill, to get a good X-Y DP, with a knee. Even though I have 3 milling machines, I’ve never purposely gone to any of the mills to drill a hole, if the work piece is in the mill, then of course I use the mill, but i’ve had the need to use the mill to just drill a hole.
 
Obviously being old school I’m not going to sway anybody who’s enamored by bells and whistles but like the teenagers say, whatever dude. For $650 I got a lot of old cast iron that will be functioning long after I’m gone. You can tell by the ad ploy “cast iron table” head and base are either aluminum or pot metal. One of the reviews on Amazon was one star because the motor came dead but no word about warranty.
 
I think I agree quite a lot with the old school here.
OK - I was more focused on the drill hardware than the guy doing the presentation.

It did cross my mind that the reviewer likes to swoop up the chips so as not to mess up his carpet! I thought that to be just a bit of comedy.

I cannot see that carpets should ever be in a machine shop. All sorts of razor sharp contaminants get in them, and are hell to remove. Whistling clean exemplary shop is OK, but surely not shagpile! Tiles, or vinyl, or even old floorboards, so long as they work with a broom, and a magnet, and a vacuum cleaner, and don't mind a lttle oil now and then.

Also, the value he puts on various features are not like mine. I only posted that one video, but of course, it is in the nature of YT to then run on to others. The review for the Nova Vulcan (floor standing) is much more businesslike. It's a fatter machine (MT3) and it shows many more of the menu options, and is much about drilling metal.

I think I can get something reasonably OK, and at much lower cost, even with adding on a good torque-sustaining switch-mode speed controller. (We still call them "VFD's", but most have moved on from simple variable frequency pseudo AC). I kind of set the Viking into light(er)weight, or woodworking category.

I do note that the Viking bench version has a very visible, physically large motor up top. The Vulcan, supposedly the more powerful machine, has some sort of magic in a smaller rounded control box.
 
I guess I fall into the old fart category. My very first machine was a 17" drill press about 40 years ago, I still have it, it still works fine. At one point i bought an X Y vice for it to do milling, OK mashing metal to the side..........
Since i bought my mill 20 years ago, the DP gets very little use. But it still gets just enough use that I have not considered selling it.
 
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