My new toy actually arrived a few weeks ago, due to a family emergency
trip and a work trip I was unable to actually attach it to the lathe
until this past weekend.

The delay was a little frustrating, but on the good side, that delay
forced me to read/re-read the manual and watch/re-watch the DVD
several times.

• The swing of the Oval reduces the total swing of a lathe by more
then I thought it would. While I haven’t measured exactly, my
impression is that it has reduced the effective swing from 16 inches
to about 12 inches

• Precutting the “rough” oval is a really good idea. Vicmarc mentions
this for reducing the weight of the blank, but it also really helps
with the swing.

• A heavy duty scrapper, like the Easy Rougher is really nice. I have
found that the extra long handle of the Easy Rougher to be a major
asset.

• Another asset of the Easy Rougher, is that it can cut on both sides
and the tip, without resetting either the tool rest or banjo. This
allowed me to do some shaping, with out moving anything, other then
the tool.

• A stop collar on the Tool Rest is a really good idea, not just due
to holding the height under the stress of roughing, but also to allow
you to maintain the tool height (which is really important for oval or
elliptical turning).

• Setting up a sight-line is a really good idea. I went to the Big Box
Store and bought a cheap laser leveling system. One possible issue in
the one I bought is that it is “self leveling”. That is the laser
system free swings. I noticed that for the first few moments after I
turn on the lathe, the line bounces a lot, and this on an object that
is really well “ovaled”. I suspect that the vibration of roughing will
make this almost un-usable. A manual adjusting laser line level would
probably be better.

• Since the VOD is weight limited, using a light “attachment” is a
good idea, since really good chuck can weigh, well, a lot. It doesn’t
make since to me to waste this weight limit on the chuck. So far all I
have done is use a face-plate, screwed to the practice piece. But I
suspect I will be using face-plates with waste blocks for much of the
actual work items

• The learning curve is steep, but it helps if you don’t think you are
going to be making an “oval” object as fast as you might make a
“round” one