New member

[Kittyhawk]

Hello all. I have been looking for a while and thought it time to introduce myself.

I am looking to get a lathe and a mill. I have decided that the C4/Chester Comet will be my choice of lathe, but am a bit confused regarding the mill. SIEG seem to offer the X2 and SX2, but I notice Axminster also have an SX2 Super, which has a remote control panel and a tapping facility and is £1029. This is more than twice the cost of the standard X2 and does not even appear on SIEGs website ??? Am I correct in assuming that none of the UK dealers offer the X2 with R8 taper? To convert, would I have to get a conversion kit from Little Machine in the US?

KH

 

[Tin Falcon]

Welcome:
I started with a seig 7 x late and x-2 mill there does seem to be a lot of seig variants out there.
I will say welcome and let someone from the UK side of the pond field your question.
Tin

 

[PaulG]

Welcome KH

 

[Maryak]

Kit,

Welcome to our forum. wEc1

Best Regards
Bob

 

[rake60]

Welcome to HMEM KH.

Rick

 

[New_Guy]

welcome KH i feel your confusion i cant even find anyone in Australia who stocks the SX2 ???

good choice with the C4 lathe it has good reviews just stick with you choice

 

[Kittyhawk]

Another possibly dumb question, but I went into Axminster in High Wycombe yesterday, to have a look at the C4 and X2 in the flesh as it were and noticed that the C4 had a huge amount of backlash in the saddle manual feed handle (around 2 divisions of the scale. Is this normal? Is it a matter of adjustment when the lathe is set up for use after purchase?

thanks

KH

 

[Deanofid]

Hi Kittyhawk

the C4 had a huge amount of backlash in the saddle manual feed handle (around 2 divisions of the scale. Is this normal? Is it a matter of adjustment when the lathe is set up for use after purchase?

Not certain what the divisions on this lathe are, but if you're talking about 0.1mm per division, then that amount of backlash isn't much.
Really, backlash isn't much of a problem on a lathe at all. You could have half a mile of it, and it won't hurt your work as far as accuracy goes. When dialing in a cut, you always work with the backlash taken up, so it doesn't have an effect on the cut.

Quite a few people work with backlash on older lathes that amounts to numerous full millimeters, or an amount that could be measured in fractions of an inch.
Just saying, a new machine shouldn't have a lot, but a little is required, or you wouldn't be able to turn the dials at all.

Dean

 

[Kittyhawk]

Even more undecided, as having narrowed it down to a C4, I looked at the total cost with stand, accessories, etc, of over £1000 and then saw a few Myford ML7s on eBay and at specialist dealers, some of which appeared in very nice/refurbished condition and went for £400-600, complete with lots of accessories and tooling. Does anyone have an opinion on these choices and is it worth spending the money with a dealer, which would be maybe twice as much as just buying a well looked after example privately?

KH