Record 4000 Chuck

Dave, I used the RP4000 for about three years first on a Draper an then on the CL4 and was very happy with it. It appears to be wel engineered and more userfriendly that some of the competition.

The Record seems to be an exact copy of the Vicmarc VM100 except tha it has a dedicated thread of 3/4"x16tpi. The dedicated thread can be drawback, if you change your lathe (as I have just done) you wil probably need an adaptor which looks a bit "Heath Robinson", comes i a limited range of sizes and is probably not as strong as the insert which Vicmarc produce to adapt the chuck to fit various lathes.

At the moment Record are asking £149 for the RP4000 whereas Phil Iron sells the VM100 at £145. Shopping around on the Internet shows tha the VM100 can be bought in Australia for £98! But what shipping an duty will add to that I can't say.

All the jaws fit either chuck (the Record marketed ones seem to be bit cheaper and Record do do special offers from time to time). In fac the large bowl jaws sold by Record are stamped "Vicmarc". I suspect tha there is a formal commercial link between the two companies as the ne Record RP3500 chuck looks mighty like the Vicmarc VM90.

Hope this helps

-- Tony the Turner