Record Power Lathe Assembly

BadlySpelledBuoy · 22 Mar 2015

Hi everyone,

In addition to his old ML8 (which I hope will be coming my way soon

) my father also has a Record Power DML18SH-SK.
He mentioned before that many of the bowls he turns on it are not quite round. Did a little digging around on the internet and found several people mention that assembling of some Record Power lathes has to be done in a very specific way to combat this and that the instruction booklet that comes with them does not give clear info on exactly how to do this.

Could anyone with a little more knowledge on this advise if the DML18SH-SK is one of the lathes that this affects and if so, how does it need to be set up correctly? I cannot find a lot of information on this anywhere.

Thanks in advance.

BSB

Chrisp · 22 Mar 2015

SBS,
This could be in relation to the bed bar supports, the castings have 2 points on one side and one on the other, the clamp on top of the bed bars have the same, they should be positioned in a triangular configuration when clamping, so 2 bumps on one side with the one bump, hope this makes sense and helps?
Not sure how this would stop the bowls from being round but will help with stability.
Regards,
Chris.

Dalboy · 22 Mar 2015

Chrisp":3f6huooh said:
SBS,
This could be in relation to the bed bar supports, the castings have 2 points on one side and one on the other, the clamp on top of the bed bars have the same, they should be positioned in a triangular configuration when clamping, so 2 bumps on one side with the one bump, hope this makes sense and helps?
Not sure how this would stop the bowls from being round but will help with stability.
Regards,
Chris.

If in doubt the cl3 instructions refer to what Chrisp has said

paulm · 22 Mar 2015

Not sure it will help with the bowls being out of round, sounds more like a workholding problem or just the natural movement in the wood as it dries out more and/or the internal tensions are released ?

Cheers, Paul

Random Orbital Bob · 22 Mar 2015

agreed. Forget any semantics about assembly apart from the normal care to get it right. Once assembled perform the kiss test with a drive centre in the headstock and any pointed centre in the tailstock. bring then carefully to within 1/2mm apart and check they're level and plumb in all planes. If not shim the appropriate sagging sides accordingly.

When mounting face plate work (bowls) make sure thy are trued properly before cutting the spigot or recess and when reverse mounting in a chuck to hollow the inside make absolutely certain the foot is square onto the jaws. Turn as normal and when finished examine for perfect roundness. If it's round as it comes off the lathe then its nothing to do with the setup and is everything to do with moisture loss once its turned. If you're turning green wood you'll never get a bowl to stay perfectly symmetrically round...not a chance in hell.

Bottom line, once mounted in a chuck and you true the blank, it will be obvious to the naked eye if there is any eccentricity in its travel. If you can get a bowl blank running true in the chuck, all other problems are downstream and related to moisture loss warp.

Tazmaniandevil · 22 Mar 2015

The positioning of the bed bars is apparently more to do with the fluid movement of the tailstock & banjo, I was led to believe, than with turnings being out of true.
I must admit I hated the Record bar system, and very quickly became tired of re-aligning the headstock and tailstock after turning with the head swivelled. Turning a bowl, then reversing it without the headstock being 100% parallel with the bars gave me horrendous problems with pieces appearing to be oval with wall thickness being very uneven. Not a problem I had with the ML8 and not an issue with the AWVSL because there is a locating pin to hold the headstock in place.
If I had kept the RP machine, I think I would have aligned the headstock & tailstock, then drilled through the swivel to insert a bolt.