New member from Western Australia

[musterpilot]

Hi All,
Just joined I live outback western Australia just bought a Sieg C3 lathe a couple of months ago hope to get some tips off the forum

 

[minh-thanh]

Hi .
Welcome to the group !
Glad to have a new member

 

[SmithDoor]

Hi All,
Just joined I live outback western Australia just bought a Sieg C3 lathe a couple of months ago hope to get some tips off the forum I am a retired pilot

Welcome to the group

Dave

 

[tractor162003]

Welcome to the group, hope we can help you

Tom

 

[bluejets]

Sieg C3 lathe

Bit small for most things unles you work in ultra miniature.

 

[michael-au]

Welcome to the forum

 

[minh-thanh]

Bit small for most things unles you work in ultra miniature.

I don't think so, I haven't used that lathe but with a little bit of my experience I can make some kind of single cylinder ( maybe more) engine if I have that lathe. With cylinder diameters of about 20 , 22 or 25 mm

 

[musterpilot]

Bit small for most things unles you work in ultra miniature.

She will be ok for what I want to do here is a spinner nut I made

 

[Steamchick]

Muster pilot, From a couple of decades use of small lathes, I simply suggest you take it slowly and carefully. The simple biggest problem of small lathes is not power, but stiffness. I.E. when cutting, the lathe distorts very slightly, affecting the accuracy and consistency of the cut. The heavier the cut the more distortion that happens. Industrial machines are built for very powerful motors and heavy cuts and feed rates. Hobby lathes simply cannot do the metal removal speeds. (SPEED AND FEED RATE). So work within the limits of the machine, reducing the cuts when you are getting close to size. Set up tools accurately on centre. Take care. Wear suitable protection. Flying swarf can blind you, cut fingers etc. And the machine will grab any fabric, sleeves etc, that is nearby and drag you into the moving bits. Many have scars from machines, sharp edges, etc. So try and do better than we did!
K2

 

[Gary C]

Welcome to the group musterpilot. Enjoy the new lathe. What is the glow engine by the way?

 

[awake]

Welcome!

 

[musterpilot]

Muster pilot, From a couple of decades use of small lathes, I simply suggest you take it slowly and carefully. The simple biggest problem of small lathes is not power, but stiffness. I.E. when cutting, the lathe distorts very slightly, affecting the accuracy and consistency of the cut. The heavier the cut the more distortion that happens. Industrial machines are built for very powerful motors and heavy cuts and feed rates. Hobby lathes simply cannot do the metal removal speeds. (SPEED AND FEED RATE). So work within the limits of the machine, reducing the cuts when you are getting close to size. Set up tools accurately on centre. Take care. Wear suitable protection. Flying swarf can blind you, cut fingers etc. And the machine will grab any fabric, sleeves etc, that is nearby and drag you into the moving bits. Many have scars from machines, sharp edges, etc. So try and do better than we did!
K2

Thanks for your advise I am aware of the pit falls and do only shallow cuts owing to the low power of the machine I intend to upgrade the motor later on I am just waiting for a new spindle to turn up which I will be changing so I can use my 100mm chucks not a big fan of those adapter plates the Sieg C4 spindle fits the C3

 

[musterpilot]

Welcome to the group musterpilot. Enjoy the new lathe. What is the glow engine by the way?

It is a ENYA 049 glow

 

[lantain1982]

Welcome musterpilot. This forum is the font of knowledge. Many good things made on small lathes.
Nice spinner nut.

 

[Apprentice707]

Welcome Musterpilot, this is a great forum for a great hobby.

 

[Steamchick]

Hi again Musterpilot,
I strongly caution against up-rating the Motor. It usually means you will take bigger cuts, faster feeds, and lose the accuracy of the machine by the increased torque applied to the BED of the lathe. Think about how the torque reaction at the chuck (workpiece) is resisted by the parts that connect to the tool? = The headstock, lathe bed, cross-slide, top-slide, tool-post, tool itself, and all the sliding clearances .... All the stressed metal carrying the torque will have been designed by Seig to resist a certain amount of torque that the motor can deliver, without compromising the accuracy of machining that they say it delivers. (elastic deformation less than maybe 1/10th of the measuring intervals of the slide-screw dials?). If you (say) double that torque, with a bigger motor, more gearing, or whatever, then you'll rapidly exceed the distortion of the machine as you cut, so losing the accuracy. - Been there with many lathes! - Very frustrating! Long shafts taper, flat faces become slightly domed, etc. - So you end-up going back to the "original" cutting speeds and feeds to retain accuracy.
I have therefore only re-motored lathes when necessary to increase the duty cycle. - IF Seig say "max 10 minutes running" then believe it! - I burned-out a motor because I didn't believe the manufacturers. and continued "roughing" a part for less than twice their time limit. - So fitted a more durable motor. (continuously rated as per the short-term rating of the original).
K2

 

[Steamchick]

Musterpilot: On another topic, what is your (machining) background, and how did you decide your Nom-de-plume?
K2

 

[musterpilot]

Musterpilot: On another topic, what is your (machining) background, and how did you decide your Nom-de-plume?
K2

Machining background only at school and we had a old lathe on our farm that I use to muck around on apart from that I flew fixed wing aircraft most of my life retired at 68 I am now 74 as for the Sieg c3 very limited in what you can buy in Western Australia also it was all that i could afford

 

[Steamchick]

 

[Bentwings]

Hi All,
Just joined I live outback western Australia just bought a Sieg C3 lathe a couple of months ago hope to get some tips off the forum

Welcome to the group always nice to have someone from the other side of the planet.
A bit of humor: is it really true that every thing that that creeps, crawls slithers, swims or flies is deadly and out to get a person? LOL We have lots of guns but guns are inert and require some kind of mind to operate .
In some cases the minds are just as deadly as your creatures.

Ok back to chip making. What are you using to make chips? Do you have a project in mind?