Sieg SC4 thoughts and experience?

[Ethan D]

Wowah! Haha mine had to travel far less than that haha
Good news is that they fit in the back of my Zook! (Vitara) haha. If it wasn't for my lift kit it would have been a low rider haha

 

[///]

Yes, probably a safe bet mine kept yours company until it got to Sydney.
If that's the case then mine will be travelling around 5000 kilometres!

 

[Ethan D]

Haha the good news about this is our lathes will be friends haha.

 

[Ethan D]

Some pictures hehe. Over the weekend I'll try and set it up.










It's partner in crime


And the safety man.

 

[///]

Interesting that it isn't covered in the thick red grease, my C3 was covered in it like icing on a cake!
I see sieg are still using that quality plywood!
I used the plywood from my C3 and X2 to build a beer crate. Makes a good conversation starter at parties haha.

 

[Ethan D]

Yeh my x2 was covered in the same red thick grease to.
Haha good old recycled timber! Lol
You will have more soon to add onto the beer crate lol

 

[///]

Woot!
Mine finally got delivered today. Crate is demolished but I had a quick visual inspection and everything appears to be ok. Will obviously give it a detailed inspection when I get it home.

It looked as though Carbatec had failed to include the faceplate I ordered, as it was nowhere to be found.
I was about to ring them when I noticed on the delivery note that there were two items... Strange.
Looking further, the delivery note also was signed by someone that was not at work today.... Very strange.
Asked a few questions here at work and apparently a small package was delivered two days ago with zero markings on it, just a plain brown box..... Yep, faceplate!
Jeeperz.

 

[Ethan D]

Woohoo! Congrats man
That's weird about the faceplate. Mine all came at the same time lol but my faceplate did come in some random box that looked recycled haha

I guess you will be playing this weekend?

 

[///]

Might get to play.... I'm going to give it a very detailed inspection, electrical and all to make sure nothing is out of sorts. The condition of the crate says it went through some pretty rough handling on its long voyage

To store the box of accessories, it was wedged between the 3 jaw chuck and the toolpost, the carriage power feed lever was engaged to hold it in place!!
Obviously not ideal :angry:

Edit: added photo.
Hope there's no damage to the feedscrew/nut.
Not happy Jan!

 

[bazmak]

Keep us all posted,about the lathe it looks a nice piece of kit.Could be an upgrade from the c3 One sticking point with me is the weight.Very difficult to manage single handed.Like the 4" chucks as std and the power x feed

 

[Ethan D]

Damn! They did pack that roughly! I hope it all works out to be ok. It would be annoying having to return it as they are discontinued! Fingers crossed and update when you can

 

[oldboy]

Keep us posted on what you think of the SC4 as they sound like a good buy for what you got them for. The power cross feed sounds good. I did have a look at them at Carbartec quite a while ago but the price was a bit steep. I ended up with a Real Bull 7 x 14 for which I have a fitted a 100mm spindle and have a 4" three jaw and 5" four jaw chucks plus ER32 collet chuck and collets. Keep us posted on how you fine the power feed on the cross slide.

Barry.

 

[///]

Well, it's in the shop.
Wasn't easy though, I didn't have anyone to help me and I didn't want to leave it in the back of the car overnight tempting every passer-by, so I had to carry it in.
Fortunately I'm still pretty fit and I'm not exactly small(6'5" and 105kg/230lbs) so it was an effort, sure, but not a strain.
I did remove as much weight as I could beforehand though, I'm not totally stupid!
The tailstock alone weighs 4.5kg(10lbs), so after removing it, the chuck, the top and cross slides, the splash back, the gear cover and the change gears(the fitted gears and their hardware were 4kg/9lbs on their own!).... I ended up removing 30.5kg, which is 67 pounds old school.
Total weight is listed as 95kg/210lbs, so I managed to get it down to around 64kg/140lbs which is much more manageable!!

I also checked the feedscrew and there doesn't appear to be any damage from using the carriage to lock the accessories box in place for transport. Still pissed about that. How hard would it have been to screw it to the base of the shipping crate? :shrug:

Attached a photo of it in my 'shop'. You can see why it is the largest lathe I can get, this is the entirety of the space I have to work with and I've now maxed that out!

Not sure what to do with the old 7x14 which looks tiny now, though the photo doesn't really convey the size difference, in person there is a HUGE difference.
I'm really tempted to convert to CNC but literally don't have anywhere to put it.

 

[Theclockworks]

Very nice I see it's got the cover on the lead screw that means it only got one clasp nut may I suggest you get the conversion to 2. My mill and lathe did not have the red gunk on them just a light oil

 

[///]

Correct, just one half. I've not read of anyone having any issues with it.
It does feel like a very positive engagement. It is difficult to see, but it looks to have about 1.5 - 2" of engagement which means it's covering about 20 - 25 threads.
I'm not expecting to screwcut very often anyway, but if I have any problems I will consider it, thanks.

 

[Ethan D]

Just a little update with this nice little lathe.

I had some time to play with it this weekend. Though I have not experienced any smaller lathes this little beast has some real grunt!
I'm now going to build a little flood coolant base/ tray for it.

How is yours going Simon?

 

[Theclockworks]

Keep the 7x14 put a shelf up you just never no when you may need it,as for room you got a lot more then me

 

[///]

How is yours going Simon?

Hi Ethan,
Mine is going great, though I'm unable to do any screw-cutting just yet.(more on this when I start an unboxing thread, though I suggest you remove your chip guard and inspect the leadscrew carefully)

I've stripped it down, checked it all over, cleaned it up and reassembled.
The feel of this lathe and the finish on turned items is way above that of a 7x14, I should have upgraded much sooner!
I have already finished one project, which is a backing plate to adapt my ER32 collet chuck onto the C4 spindle, this was a nice easy job that was a lot of fun while getting used to the feel of the new lathe. I will also cover this in the unboxing thread.

You are right, this lathe has some grunt!!
I accidentally discovered a small problem with the lock on the Power Feed lever when I was tuning a small 2 or 3mm chamfer on the backing plate.
I moved my hand to pick up a brush and lightly bumped the lever which knocked it into feed for the saddle and away she went!!

Now, I had the saddle clamp locked up tight and I was unable to move the saddle manually, but the power feed sure got it moving no problem!
The side face of the CCGT carbide insert was plunged into the work. (the top-slide was set over for doing the chamfer)
The swarf coming off was about 6mm (1/4") wide and it didn't even sound like was struggling!! (remember, the saddle lock clamp was TIGHT)
After that little misshap and a quick clean-up of the work, my plan of a nice little 2 to 3mm chamfer became a 10mm chamfer! haha.

Post-mortem I discovered that my locking mechanism isn't as per the Sieg part drawing.
Instead of having three locking slots, mine only has two.
The slot that locks the cross feed(3 in the drawing attached) is fine, but slots 2(disengaged) and 1(cross feed) are one slot, there is no metal between them which means the lever doesn't need to be pushed in before rotating.... danger.

So that's my very next project, I will be making a replacement, pronto! Don't want any more accidental power feeds!!

Keep the 7x14 put a shelf up you just never no when you may need it,as for room you got a lot more then me

Thanks TCW, I'm holding on to it for now.