Metal Lathe Stand / Machine Table 

how have you found the sc10?

I also would love a little review on that lathe SIEG SC10. Now that you used it and made the upgrades ( as per other vid), - how is it? You like the lathe?

@@redbutler751 @Red Butler Yes, so far it's done everything I asked of it, I think it's a good deal for an affordable, allrounder lathe. Precision with these machines is much better than they usually get credit for (at the spindle nose, I have a runout of less than a micron/.001mm). As you saw in the video there's always things you can improve, and they cut some corners here and there and sometimes the chinese have some weird design quirks. But when you view it in relation to the price, it's fine. A comparable machine from a "professional" brand would easily cost you over 10k. I honestly can't say anything bad about the overall quality, my only reason to get another lathe would be to get one with bigger capacity. Power/Torque is also good for this size of machine. I think the part I dislike the most is the top slide, as you saw in the video, it does feel a bit lower quality than the rest, but with a budget machine there's gonna be some tradeoffs. You can check out Frank Hooses channel here on RU-vid - he made a very detailed video series about a Precision Matthews lathe that is the same model as this one, just from a different reseller. Those videos were a great help in making the decision to buy this one.

@@PhilVandelay That thing is almost 5000 dollars, and you call that affordable?

It's laminated multiplex, not just normal wood so it won't expand based on temperature. But you're right though a steel top would have been better and I haven't leveled the lathe yet. So far it's not a problem but I might change it sometime in the future

Phil Vandelay Thanks for replying, when I mounted my new lathe I just levelled the bench first with the feet then packing under the lathe as needed, I was mainly concerned turning parallel from the chuck over 130mm length, thanks looking forward to more of your videos.

I'm actually surprised nobody has complained about me welding drawer slides to everything ;) It's mostly just lazyness, I hate drilling holes in steel with a hand drill... As for the welder, It's basically a chinese welder, but they're sold and branded by a company in Germany called Stahlwerk. AC/DC Tig with built in Plasma Cutter. They do the quality control over here but the parts are cheap so you get a lot of bang for your buck. Pretty happy with it now that I replaced the torch. Only thing that sucks is the foot pedal...

I wonder if it's because they're usually zinc coated... Does it flash junk onto your tungsten?

Yep, they're coated and it can be kind of a pain to weld. But I've figured out that it works alright if you start a clean puddle and lead it into a zinc coated piece. If you start the arc right on the zinc, that's when it gets really messy.

You're right, I don't have a mig welder, just using TIG cause it's what I've got but yeah, mig would be a lot more convenient for this kind of stuff. The plywood is a special laminated plywood, it seems it's not really a thing in the US but quite common here in Germany. It's basically plywood with a really hard, wear resistant coating on top that is also water (and oil) proof, so quite useful stuff since you can just wipe it down.

Yes you're right. The Lathe is actually bolted onto the long middle steel beam that you can see earlier in the video, I guess I forgot to show how I actually did that. So yeah like you said it would be good to add additional tubing wherever the mounting holes on your lathe are and bolt it onto those. In my case they are all in one line so the long piece of tubing was enough. I did beef up this table a few months ago to make it even more rigid too, you can see some pics of that on my instagram

There are a few minor reasons but nothing too important. I sometimes do it like that because it's more convenient to align the legs to be perpendicular to the top this way, by clamping the sides against each other. It also creates a ledge around the table which can be convenient to clamp things onto. And if you stand in front of the table like in this case it can be more comfortable if the front face (like in this case, the drawers) is a bit further inside, there's more space for your legs this way. And since the table legs are a bit further inside, it helps, for example, to place the table flat against a wall if there is something in the way at the bottom, like a baseboard. It also makes it easier to place two tables flush against each other because only the tops are touching and there is space between the legs. Last but not least I think it looks nice. Structurally I don't think it makes too much of a difference.

@@PhilVandelay Ok, Plenty of good reasons I see. Now my concern was more about the structural strength but you weld with TIG process and this is the best one I guess. Thanks .

Makes it easier to put stuff up against the wall when the edge is wider than the legs, allows you to clamp stuff onto the tabletop all around, and also helps to align the legs to the frame somewhat square. Also gives you a bit more legroom when you're standing in front of it

Hey, I have actually beefed up this table a bit recently because it allowed for a bit too much vibration and and I also added leveling feet. I'm actually still in the process of optimizing stuff so it's hard to give a definite answer. Up until recently I hadn't even bolted down the lathe to the table as I was too busy doing projects and pefect accuracy wasn't that important. In general you have to keep in mind that with this design that lathe doesn't get attached to the sheet of plywood, as you can see in the video I added a "cross" of tubing in the middle and that's what the lathe is bolted to right now. The wood in this case is really only there to keep things from falling through the table and add a little more surface area but most of the weight is carried by the steel bar in the middle. As for accuracy, there's two things that will come into play here which is the rigidity of the table (how much it swings/vibrates) and how level the lathe is. If you have swing/vibration you will generally get a worse surface finish so you want everything to be as ridgid as possible. If the lathe isn't level, the bed can twist ever so slightly resulting in the ways not being 100% paralell which can lead to the lathe turning a taper. There's a great video by ThisOldTony on this topic which I recommend you check out. But to actually answer your question: For what I did the lathe performed reasonably well even without being bolted to the table, I got decent surface finish on most materials and it was accurate enough for me. I did run into a lot of problems with parting operations and I still haven't figured out what exactly the problem is there. I generally wouldn't recommend putting a lathe this size on *just* a wooden surface with the wood carrying all the weight, but I think a solution like this with a supporting steel structure underneath can work ok. Ideally you want the base to be as heavy and sturdy as you can manage. It's a pretty big topic and I'm anything but an expert but I hope I could help a little... for smaller shop projects I always post updates on Instagram, feel free to check then out to see where I'm at with the process of setting up the machines a bit better.

@@PhilVandelay Yeah, as more as research as more paranoid i get :D lets see, organize the argon next week and the profile steel to start cracking tigging away i actually wanted to begin model engineering, not build a fricking lathe from scratch :D

MagMax ???

What welder do you use?

Sembra che non sia l'unico a chiedere che tipo di saldatrice TIG che lui utilizza. Ciao da America, MagMax 🇺🇲 🇮🇹

45x2mm, but it's actually a bit unersized for this (I used what I had around). I'd suggest something more like 50x3 to give it more mass

Haha, I'm not, it's the second floor. But the building has a heavy-duty elevator. The little forklift barely fit in there :)

It's a hobby shop, I'm actually a freelance graphics designer. I put most my money into the shop though. And I just like to have things clean and organized

Never mind.... figured it out myself.

I put a link in the comment on top!

Thanks mate

I don't know exactly since it isn't mine! It's an older Metabo model, I think you can buy the slider as an accessory

Phil Vandelay Thank you.