Does anybody own a Sieg Nano Lathe ?

Has anybody owned or used one of these Sieg Nano lathes ?

**LINK**

There are some old reviews on the internet which were not very favourable but things may have improved since then.

Might be better known as the Draper version

Rod

Bad copy...shizzle...lemon...nough said

Not a beginners lathe.....not a watchmakers lathe....crap may be a good complement...ideal for Draper

Mentioned it a couple of years ago and no-one was interested

A new "Unimat" on the block

Ketan : Have you used one or owned one ? Those reviews are quite old and they may have fixed the problems by now.

Ady1 : I searched this site before posting a new thread but could not find anything otherwise I would have added to your posting.

That's ok, I was only pointing out the total lack of interest in this new unit, which to my eyes looked like it had potential at the time

On the flip side, the unimat market is still very buoyant with lots of activity

Hi Brian John,

I do not have a Nano, I have a Sieg Baby C0 Lathe.
Which is about the same Size.
It was delivered 6 weeks ago, one day after ordering.
A test piece of S/S was turned down to 0.010" dia (.25mm dia) before it broke off.
The three jaw Chuck run-out was less than 0.002".
Although only 150watt motor I cannot stop the chuck by hand so the power is good.
The tail-stock alignment was out by about 0.004" (0.1mm)but can be adjusted.
The only problem was the way the carriage/cross slide is secured to the ways, but now after a bit of work is very good and robust.
The statements above were the areas where there is no information anywhere on the net and were my main worries before ordering.
In my opinion this lathe will be much better than the Nano mainly because any faults can be corrected easily.
I already have a full workshop, this lathe is for clock parts and use in the house in the cold Scottish winters.
any questions please ask

Victor J

Ketan is an importer of Seig products...

Neil

Victor : yes, I like the Sieg C0. It does look a better buy and it is not much heavier either. I will find an Australian seller to see what they are worth here. The Sieg ebay seller does not have a C0 which is why I had not seen it before.

Looks good :

http://www.ausee.com.au/shop/category.aspx?catid=46

Even better with an accessory pack :

http://www.ausee.com.au/shop/item.aspx?itemid=249

How do you fit a drill chuck to the tailstock ? Is this a thread unlike the other lathes which use an arbor ?

Edited By Brian John on 10/07/2014 09:41:02

Edited By Brian John on 10/07/2014 10:40:39

I have not used or owned one. I have given one to an engineer for checking/testing. I had given the outcome of list of issues to SIEG. They disagreed. So we did not add to our range.

I am not prepared to go through the list of problems for various commercial reasons.

During the past two years I have meet two separate users who were looking for certain parts. They said that the machine needed 'a lot of fettling'.

Because of 'the look' (similar to watchmakers lathe), it also attracted a lot of interest from that particular hobby, because it is so cheap. However, it failed to meet the expectations 'for the price' of a well respected watchmaker who tested it out for us. His idea was to pitch it as an entry level machine to new people entering that hobby, but at the end, he agreed that the machine raised more questions then being able to address the need.

As a seller, I wish to invite as less or no problems post sales. At this price, there is no money in it for dealing with any user based issues.

Ketan at ARC.

Hi Again Brian,

The drill chuck screws on to the tail-stock 14mm x 1mm external thread as does the three jaw chuck.
The live centre is a slide fit inside the tail-stock sleeve.

Victor J

Ketan : Thanks for the information. I cannot argue with your evaluation.

Victor : Does the three jaw chuck screw screw onto the spindle ? I am a bit confused here.

Hi Brian,
The three jaw Chuck screws on to the headstock with an external 14 x 1mm thread on the spindle and an internal 14 x 1mm thread in the chuck, the chuck is located on a registered shoulder and gives the run-out on my chuck of 0.002" total.
Hope this helps
Victor

Isn't that unusual screwing the chuck onto the headstock ? I thought they all bolted on ? Can you still run it in both directions ?

How does the face plate fit to the headstock ?

> Isn't that unusual screwing the chuck onto the headstock ? I thought they all bolted on ?

Not particularly, especially on older lathes and some new ones. Alternatives are bolt-on flange mount (cheap) and camlock (expensive). All depend for accuracy on an accurate register, and no way is inherently superior to the others for accuracy.

> Can you still run it in both directions ?

Not a good idea unless you have an arrangement to stop the chuck unscrewing, as on the later Myfords.

> How does the face plate fit to the headstock ?

It screws on too.

Neil

Brian I sent you a P.M

Ian.

I have sold the C2 and bought the Sieg CO lathe. Somebody mentioned earlier that the lathe should be bolted to the workbench rather than use the rubber feet. What is wrong with using the rubber feet ?

Edited By Brian John on 24/07/2014 13:31:59

Can I just correct a common misunderstanding here? The Myford 'safe reversing' feature on big-bore lathes is a misnomer in my opinion, as a user. The hole for the grub screw has a shoulder to stop the screw from contacting the vee groove in the spindle register. This is so that it does not pull the chuck out of truth. So, when the chuck starts to unscrew, it rotates about half a turn before the grub screw does contact the groove and stops the chuck coming right off. Still very worthwhile if it stops a chuck spinning off at speed but it does not mean you can use the lathe safely to apply a cut in reverse.

Andrew M