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Upgrade C3 to new 500W motor?

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marcusj24/03/2010 07:26:05
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Anybody considering upgrading their Sieg C3 lathe from the rather puny old 350W motor to the 500W one that is fitted to the 'Super' C3 as sold by Arc Euro Trade?  Presumably it would need both motor and controller.  Anybody any idea how much this would cost?

Why? I'd like to be able to look forward to jobs cutting steel and parting off (any material!) rather than avoiding them like the plague!  I get larger steel pieces made for me by a tame local machine shop, at least to rough size and I always have to resort to the bandsaw for 'parting off'.
Michael Cox 124/03/2010 08:38:46
555 forum posts
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Hi Marcus, I do not thik that more power will necessarily solve your parting off problems. Good parting depends on a good rigid toolpost, topslide and cross slide. Run the spindle slowly, use a sharp tool and don't let it rub.
Some jobs require more power such as turning large diameters. Here the required spindle speed is slow so one solution is to install a layshaft and pulleys to reduce the speed of the spindle by say a half. This way you double the available torque.
The super C3 is very new and I doubt whether spares  will be availble yet but you could contact Arc Eurotrade to get the costs of the new motor and controller.
Mike
David Clark 124/03/2010 10:24:08
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Hi There
Review of C3 in issue 163 of Model Engineer.
I doubt you can upgrade the motor on the old ones as the new motor does away with the countershaft.
Certainly, the spare motors won't be available for a while.
The whole bed casting has changed as well, now longer.
I would sell your old C3 and buy a new one.
regards david
 

Edited By David Clark 1 on 24/03/2010 11:01:56

Ian S C24/03/2010 11:49:44
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Sounds like a bigger lathe is needed, they never seem big enough at times, be nice to have more than one, I have but the other one is a Super Adept, make your C3 seem like a giant(it does get occasional use). Ian S C
marcusj24/03/2010 19:37:41
27 forum posts
Thanks for the quick replies.  I think that I shall make do with the C3 as-is for now. If I do anything I shall probably go down the route of layshaft + pulley to get more torque (especially for larger diameters and materials like steel).  If I can be bothered...
 
In slow time I shall look longingly at the Amadeal / Weiss CJ23B-750.
 
I have a milling machine (Amadeal / Weiss AMA-16V) to fill my medium term capital budget .
 
 
Stub Mandrel30/03/2010 22:55:14
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Hi Marcus,
 
The Arc Euro Trade website has (or had) a video of my Clakre CL300 (essentially the same lathe) where I'm plunging a 3/16" wide parting tool to cut a groove in 2" EN1A. No chatter and the swarf 'came off with the sound of frying bacon', to coin a phrase.
 
Standard motor, but with the roller bearing headstock mod -  plus carefully adjusted gibs and slides.
 
I have since made a t-slotted cross slide that I use with a one piece tool post, but only this weekend I've been reducing a 1 1/2" bit of high tensile (OK I picked up the wrong stuff from the pile) down to 5/8" at one end. Just 10-15thou cuts and the swarf is coming off in long coils - I managed one over a yard long!
 
One idea I plan to try is a smaller toothed wheel on the end of the motor. Increase motor speed and get more torque for the same speed.
 
One thing I rely on is my digital tacho - not to get the right speed, but I keep an eye on how much the speed drops - shows up a too heavy cut or a blunt tool pretty quickly.
 
 
Regards
 
Neil
marcusj31/03/2010 13:33:16
27 forum posts
Posted by The Artful Bodger on 30/03/2010 22:55:14:

The Arc Euro Trade website has (or had) a video of my Clakre CL300 (essentially the same lathe) where I'm plunging a 3/16" wide parting tool to cut a groove in 2" EN1A. No chatter and the swarf 'came off with the sound of frying bacon', to coin a phrase.
 
Standard motor, but with the roller bearing headstock mod -  plus carefully adjusted gibs and slides.
 

 
Therein lies the trick, methinks.  I think I might order some taper roller bearings from Arc.  If I still lived near Leicester I might get Arc to fit them myself, but now instead of 50 miles they are more like 1000 away...

If I remember correctly Dave Fenner's MiniLathe book explains how to fit the taper roller bearings to the C3 without running into the Catch 22 of needing a lathe to make / modify bushings when your one and only lathe is in bits.
 
Stub Mandrel01/04/2010 20:13:24
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4318 forum posts
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Hi again Marcus,
 
Model Engineer Vol. 197 No.4277, 7 July 2006 has an article describing how to fit roller bearings. Shame the archive only goes back to 4290! Modesty forbids me naming the author...
 
Neil

Edited By Stub Mandrel on 01/04/2010 20:21:22

Ian S C02/04/2010 00:58:48
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Yesterday when looking for something else i saw the some one had fitted the motor from a tread mill to his mini lathe, now thats about 1hp. Ian S C

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