• Page 1 of the Record Power CL4 Review
• Page 2 of the Record Power CL4 Review
• Page 3 of the Record Power CL4 Review

Having tried the headstock without the roll pin in place (it took about a week for Record Power to send me replacements and I wanted to get cracking) I can say for certain that the addition of the roll pin is a huge improvement. The head stock wasn't loose without it but with it the head stock is rock solid.

The final part of the assembly is the fitting of the motor unit. This is probably the hardest part of the job and requires two people. The motor mounting plate is bolted to the motor and the whole unit is offered up to the pulley housing. The motor is awkward to lift as it doesn't appear to have anywhere that looks strong enough to hold it by. The power unit on top is the obvious choice but the connection to the motor itself is too weak. I cradled it under the fins which seemed to work quite well. Once offered up to the pulley unit a second person is required to slide the motor pulley onto the drive shaft. Then comes the really tricky part – getting the nut on the end of the motor plate locking lever. This nut, again, has a roll pin and the bolt is only just long enough to reach through the motor plate and housing making getting the nut on exceedingly difficult. This is exacerbated by the fact that the pulley housing is now fully of pulleys!

Once the locking level nut is on it's then simply a matter of lining up the pulleys and locking them into place. Each pulley is attached to it's shaft using two small grub screws which should be done up good and tight to ensure there is no lateral movement in the pulley. Finally screw the pulley hatch on and admire a job well done.

Now that the lathe is put together before it can be used it must be run in for 3 hours. This is to ensure a good working lifetime for the phosphor-bronze main bearing. The instruction manual is very thorough on how to perform the running in and once complete the bearing needs nothing but a little oil on each use. The manual suggests that 4 or 5 drops of oil each day that the bearing is used is about right. I am finding that more like 2 or 3 is actually what the bearing needs and any more gets thrown out. I have checked the tightness of the bearing and it appears to be correct with no play which would indicate a loose bearing. During prolonged constant use (more than 2 hours) the main bearing will become warm to the touch (perhaps 40 degrees) but not hot as it is a friction bearing.

The Record Power CL4 comes with a four prong drive centre and a dead centre, both 1MT to match the head and tail stock. I would have liked to have seen a face place or perhaps a small screw chuck included in the package as neither are very expensive and would greatly increase the tasks that can be performed with this lathe straight out the box. On reflection, however, I doubt many people would buy this as their first lathe – the sort of person that buys this lathe probably already has a face plate and screw chuck.

One area that the manual is a little quiet about is how to remove the prong centre from the head stock. I realize that anyone who has been turning a while would immediately see how it is done but to someone who had only ever read about Morse Taper before getting a lathe this seemed to be a tricky problem. The manual mentions how to remove the thread protector if it is very tight and upon reading that section is dawned on me how to remove the prong centre. The work drive shaft is held with a spanner and the thread protector is screwed into the back of the drive centre to ease it out. Quite how you get a Morse Taper attachment out if you forget to fit the thread protector is a bridge I will cross if or when it happens. While this mechanism certainly works there is no doubt it is irritating to have to open the pulley housing every time one wants to remove the drive centre. As with the face plate, however, I suspect that the majority of people using this lathe will have a chucking system attached most of the time and therefore won't have this annoyance.

Conclusion

In conclusion I am very pleased with the Record Power CL4 and the RPLB24-48 lathe stand. The unit is exceptionally sturdy and feels like it will be up to any job that I can throw at it for a long while to come. Price wise I feel that this deal offers exceptional value for money. Having spent a good deal of time looking around comparing features from various different companies I failed to find another lathe within £200 that offered the same feature set. Combined with the fact that Record Power are highly popular (especially in the UK) so spares should be easy to get hold of makes this unit hard to turn down. If you have got the money I would certainly recommend this lathe for beginners. Yes, it's not cheap but you almost certainly will never need to upgrade.

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