My shiny new lathe.

 January 2015

For many years I've considered buying a lathe, after much soul searching I decided to go for a small lathe certain in my own mind that it would do for what I was expecting to use it for, taking into account it's small footprint and low cost it seemed an ideal solution. Having looked into getting a used lathe, the distances involved in collecting and the size of many of the items on offer made this impractical for my needs. So I bit the bullet and ordered an Axminster Sieg C0. (From here).

With my shiny new lathe unpacked I played around with a few scraps of brass and first impressions were good. But the first favour I was asked to do on it threw up some problems....

I promised to make a spacer ring for a colleague, out of aluminium. Quite confident I set up the lathe with a piece of aluminium and started work. At this point I must mention that at around 65mm dia it was certainly at the maximum size the lathe could hold and machine. I had a lot of problems with the motor tripping out on even small cuts and the whole excersise was frustrating as it became clear that at this dimension roughing cuts were'nt going to work. So 100um cuts were needed. OK it took time but it did produce the goods and did an excellent job.

Feb 2015

 After a few other pieces lack of torque became a real bugbear for me and I realised I needed to tackle this issue, or buy a bigger lathe. The B - U - Y word always causes me upset especially after such a  short time, so I started looking for alternatives to the standard drive chain. Remotoring was going to be prohibitive, better to put the money towards a new machine. Looking around at spare parts I noticed that the C1 used a timing belt with around a 2:1 ratio, doubling the torque. The motor pulley was a direct fit and I was convinced that the head pulley could be bushed to fit. A set was ordered, and at under 20 squids not too scary. To cut a long story short, a bush was manufactured, pulleys fitted but the belt was far too long. Mmm. Ok I was unable to identify the belt as it had no markings, it looked like it could be a T5, one was purchased but it wasn't a match. The project was shelved.

Mar 2015

Following another exasperating experience trying to machine a 50mm dia piece of aluminium I decided to have another bash at changing the drive chain. I had a T5 belt, so ordered matching pulleys at 19mm and 57mm diameter, giving a 3:1 ratio. I figured a 1000 useable rpm was something I could live with. Pulleys were machined up and fitted. Belt on and lets give it a try. Whooo hooo! 1mm cuts on 50mm dia aluminium. I'm a happy bunny.

This leaves 2 niggles to sort out, the tailstock is off centre, but an adaptor is available at Arceurotrade, the fact that this is readilly available leads me to believe this is a common problem. From the same people I intend to purchase the compound slide/tool holder. Not being able to cut tapers has prevented me doing a few projects. I'm sure that there are more improvements I can make, to improve backash and make the handles a little bigger. But these are nicities rather than real headaches.

I need to add here that the above sounds very negative but I genuinely believe the lathe to be excellent value for money (I'm not affiliated with Sieg, Axminster or any other supplier, just an end user.). Yes it has shortcomings, but it also has a lot of strengths. For machining under 25mm dia, it copes extremely well, is capable of obtaining a good finish and is surprisingly accurate. Certainly good enough for what most would require and probably better than I am capable of. No it's not a watchmakers lathe, but for the money you can't expect that either. There are a large number of upgrades for it, and I've seen that some have even fitted stepper drives and CNC'd it. One big plus for me is I can set it up on the kitchen table and enjoy the company of my better half, have regular tea injections and, most importantly keep warm. Am I sorry I bought it, no. Of course a bigger more powerful lathe would be good but that means more expense and having to keep it in the shed. I do this for fun, as a pastime and inspite of my moans I have enjoyed using it.