Sieg SC4 Pro

Good evening,

whilst looking for a new lathe I came across the web site for SIEG in Germany, they have a SIEG SC4 Pro listed, the machine has a redesigned control panel, Bluetooth DRO, digital readouts for the compound and Tailstock, QCTP and a smaller splash back so probably no milling attachment. Seems like a nice machine to me.

Has anyone heard of this machine or have any comments?

I asked Paulimot in Germany if they planned to stock this machine but apparently they do not have any plans to do so.

Cheers, Mark

I think the idea is that the machine comes with the scales and readheads and the user has to supply their own tablet or other bluetooth device which helps keep costs down. I think they are just basic readouts without the functions of a full blown DRO which is less of an issue on a lathe than a mill. They do similar setups for the mills too.

They are going away from the push buttons to alter the speed and standardising on a similar knob based panel across the mills and lathes to reduce spare parts that dealers need to stock

Hi Jason,

thanks for the reply, the website specifications lists an Android tablet:-

"Upgraded Features SC4 pro compared to SC4:

1. Upgraded front control panel

2. New rigid splash guard

3. QCTP- Quick change tool post 250-111

4. High grade aluminum knob & handwheel

5. Top side DRO,

6. tailstock DRO

7. 2 axis DRO (magnetic scale rails on bed and cross slide, inside bluetooth generator, Android tablet)"

Whether this has been lost in translation is another question although the picture on the website does show a tablet in place:- https://www.sieg-machines.de/navi.php?a=22448&lang=eng

In any case an interesting development!

Have a good evening! Mark

4. High grade aluminium knob & handwheel

Great, that will make all the difference......

I like the idea of built in scales, and connecting them to a tablet seems like a good idea.

What I would like to see is moving into the 20th century and the change gears/gearboxes dropped in favour of a factory Electronic Lead Screw. That would give instant selection of any thread pitch or fine-feed. Not having all the gears churning away would make the machine quieter and nicer to use. A stepper motor, PCB and a couple of sensors ought to be cheaper than the mechanical parts too

Might as well do the sensible thing and make it full cnc in that case.

(Ducks...)

Edited By John Haine on 19/03/2021 21:35:18

You could say the same about fitting any power feed.

My point is that a lathe is a pretty simple machine. The geartrain to make it a fully usable tool is complicated, expensive and in many cases, awkward to use due to its old fashioned nature. A modern replacement improves all of those.

I would have thought that a banjo and a few plastic or metal gears were cheaper than a stepper, encoder and PCB. Certainly less likely to give problems.

John the Sieg CNC lathes are available in a nice enclosure with Siemens control and they do a matching mill.

Edited By JasonB on 20/03/2021 07:45:16

My point is slightly different. ELS systems are going to be a minority sport with little professional support for bugs and development. They do a subset of full CNC, and a full CNC controller can use proper supported software and give a load of additional functions probably at little incremental cost. If you used full CNC you could eliminate all the change wheels and the gubbins needed to mount them, get rid of the top slide and various complications on the carriage, and possibly save cost. And praise be, no more "how do I cut metric threads on..." or yet more ball turning attachments.

My own experience of Mach 3 on a lathe tells me that I'd never want to go back to a manual machine for most jobs, even quick one-offs (which most of our work is!). And more recent controllers would be much better (but I have too much invested in special-purpose macros etc).

I know you can get Sieg CNC lathes but the price is eye-watering. I think there is a place for a toolroom lathe that is basically CNC but with electronic handwheels so it can emulate a manual lathe, but the operator has access to a load of wizards when needed, or better, conversational programming; and can load full gcode from CAD/CAM when needed.

Maybe anyone keen on such a machine ought to talk to Ketan at Arc Euro.

Post Brexit with the amicable behaviour of the EU, it might be simpler to see if having a local company importing from China would be better.

Ketan would be more familiar than most, if he thought that there would be a viable market for such a machine.

And after sales service would be better than across Europe

(Imagine the cost and complications of importing from Germany with tarriffs and bureaucracy, AND if it were faulty and had to be shipped back! )

Howard

Good evening Howard,

I would certainly appreciate Ketan's point of view concerning this machine, as for a market I know at least one interested customer!

Concerning delivery I live in Switzerland and so Germany is quite convenient, and relatively cheap, for deliveries.

As a comparison I can have the Sieg SC4 and accessories, delivered to my home for €148, to have a much lighter mill delivered from the UK was much more expensive.

I am torn between the Siec SC4 and the Optimum 2406, the Optimum has a bigger swing but the SIeg has other features, to make things worse they now throw the Sieg SC4 Pro into the mix! Oh well, such is life!

Cheers, Mark