record power cl1

[treefella83]

does any one have or have owned a record power cl1 ?
i have been having trouble with my cl1 ever since i purchased it two years ago.
i have written about the vibration problems with the lathe before but i have now purchased the ajustable bench from record power and it has sorted one problem the lathe runs very quiet and vibration free.
when turning face work of any size and no matter how the timber is held in a chuck or face plate i get stupid amounts of vibration.
i don't really notice any vibration when roughing the timber but as soon as i start to true up the timber thats when it starts.
today i was trying to turn an ash bowl from a blank that was 8 x 2 inches and i could feel the vibration starting when i was only applying the bevel and when i started to take a cut it got worse until i had to stop because the gouge was bouncing along the timber even with the smallest of shavings and the bevel rubbing it was impossible to get a clean cut.
the bench is bolted to a concrete floor and has ten bags of sand on the middle shelf and has new bearings and spindle fitted.
the problem is that when the lathe is running or not even with no timber mounted ready to turn i can tap the head stock or tail stock even the bed bars with the palm of my hand and the whole lathe will vibrate.
the lathe runs sweet as a nut when turning between centers so i cant understand whats going wrong.
is my lathe faulty or is this normal with a cl1 ?
can any one who owns a cl1 please pop out into the shed and just give the head stock a gentle tap and see if the lathe vibrates
any help will be great before i contact record power again because at the moment i cant even turn an egg cup with out feeling like some one is drilling the lathe with a hammer action drill.
i'm not a happy bunny

 

[wood yew believe it !]

jesus mate, feel for u there, from what you have said and done im at a total loss as to xplain why, but ive only been at this ayear an a half, but you can rest assured there will be a crusty ol' dog along soon who will no doubt point you in the right direction, good luck, have a bit of faith, aint nuthin that cant b fixed !

 

[CHJ]

...snip...when turning face work of any size and no matter how the timber is held in a chuck or face plate i get stupid amounts of vibration.

I would say that your headstock front bearing needs adjusting, That is if it is constructed the same way as the CL3, which is the only one I have seen the manual for.

The front bearing , if a plain tapered one like the cl3 is adjusted for fit by a ring nut inside the headstock.

See 5, b & c for starters although I can find no info. on the CL1.

EDIT: This article says all lathes have tapered front bearing and details adjustment method

 

[Paul.J]

Treefella.
Reminds me of that late great Benny Hill sketch where him and his mate were playing drunken tramps and they staggered acroos a sign for a job vacancy which read,
"TREEFELLERS WANTED- APPLY WITHIN"
To which Benny turns round and says,
"DATS A PITY.DAIRS ONLY TWO OF US" :lol: :lol: :lol:

But back to your problem,i've no idea.I used to have the DML24 which used to vibrate badly when i used to change belt speed and forgot to tighten the motor back up :roll:
Hope you get it sorted so we can see your work still.
Paul.J.

 

[Mark Hancock]

I don't believe the CL1 has an adjustable bearing and you say you've already replaced the front bearing. Has this been fitted correctly?

You say ".....lathe is running or not even with no timber mounted ready to turn i can tap the head stock or tail stock even the bed bars with the palm of my hand and the whole lathe will vibrate"

I'd first check every point where vibration can occur ie all parts which are bolted together and make sure these are tight including the bolting to the floor. Also look at the bench. Manufactured adjustable benches tend to be of lightweight construction. See if you can add braces to it (triangulation), box it in as much as possible and fill with loose sand/concrete blocks adding as much weight as possible.

Good luck.

 

[Roger]

It might well take a visit from someone to actually see and advise you on what's gone/going wrong. You've got the WearValley Turners and Jimmy Clewes within 10 minutes of you:

Jimmy Clewes Jimmy would probably charge (he makes a living from this!)

It might be worth while going to a WearValley meeting and picking their brains, or asking someone to come along and check it out for you. The next meeting is the 19th

 

[joekid]

i have just changed my head for the shu (swivel head upgrade , and noticed the motor end strap was too long for gripping the motor mount so ground off five mm on the contact area / problem solved,the base plate wasnt gripping the bed bars tight enough / i got onto record about this and they told me there was a part missing/!!,what can you say.go on the record power knowledge site/ and write a review/ they check them before putting them on the site /they emailed me in no time trying to sort it out

 

[CHJ]

Thanks Mark for the clarification on the bearing types, I did not absorb the "replaced bearings" bit .

treefella83, it sounds as if the bearings have something to do with the problem though.
You say that you do not have problems with between centres work and in this configuration the bearings will have an end load(side) applied which may be taking up slackness, also of course any imbalance of the wood is at a minimum on spindle work.

Do you have the same effect if you mount a large diameter piece on the faceplate and bring up the tailstock to support and provide pressure against the headstock bearings.

 

[dickm]

You say that "when you tap the head, the whole lathe vibrates"?
This suggests to me that it's something other than bearings, unless they are really bad (I suppose there's no chance that the new bearings were duds?). Are you sure every possible nut and bolt that holds the thing together is up tight? Maybe take it all apart, and clean all mating surfaces, to make sure everything can sit as intended?
HTH.

 

[treefella83]

thanks every one

 

[joekid]

also check the gears on the spindle, they sometimes work loose i had this happen when changing my head stock for the shu head, but didnt tighten the rear spindle bolt , tightly enough , this coupled with the under tightened gear cassete screws , caused a blo*dy riot, i had wood flying everywhere,the missus calls it my bomb shelter!! women?? so i undone everything and tightened every nut and bolt one by one untill i found it/ the process of elimination,it was then i noticed the head stock strap wasnt gripping the bed bars tightly enough//ishould have sent the lot back, but had work to do ,, i ground off five mm, off the protruding strap pins,, sound as a pound//go through the lot,if its still hapening its the running gear , then check the bearings, back spindle bolt, all swiveling pins etc,,hope you find it fella, nothing worse..

 

[treefella83]

one last try.
i've taken the lathe apart again and put it all back together again and i now feel that i can do this blind folded.
i've taken the shelves out of the stand and taken the sand bags off and the whole lathe and stand will hum like a tunning fork when tapped.
i think that the lathe stand supplied by record power is of poor quality and very over priced.
now my next job is to beef up the stand and may be bolt sheets of ply wood to the back of the stand also on the ends to the legs and bolt some ply wood boxes in to hold the sand.
if this does not work there will be a cheap lathe for spares or repair.
i have also had no reply from record power after a week.
i have spent well over a thousand pounds on record tools and machines in the last two years and i think i'm going to look elsewhere for my wood turning needs in the future.
sorry to moan on so much

 

[Paul.J]

Moan taken.
All Record products have the 5 year guarantee with them.I should complain a little louder to them.
As you said spending all that money with them you should get a better response.
Keep pushing them :x
Paul.J.

 

[joekid]

go on to /record power the knowlege/look at the products click on your lathe and type a damning review, they always check before releasing it to the site,give it a go, they dont like public floggings,good luck

 

[ike]

Thinking sideways a little here. Could it be the motor or motor pulley is unbalanced? Have you checked for vibration with the drive belt slack?

As to the difference in vibration of face turning and spindle work, perhaps mounting between centres is changing the natural resonance of the headstock or the whole machine.

Ike

 

[TEP]

I owned a small record a number of years ago which began vibrating. The lathe worked great when not under load, yet as soon as you touched a tool to the wood it would start vibrating. I eventually found that the belt pulley on the motor shaft had worked loose. The repair was just to tighten the grub screw. One thing I did notice was that the upper pulley had a second grub screw tightened on top of the first. I did the same with the lower pulley, problem solved. May be worth checking.