Contact Ketan at Arc. I am sure he will replace the defective chuck and comment on the lack of mounting holes for the steady.

Andrew.

Sounds like you had better get the lathe in a position where you can check it over under power so when contacting Ketan you will have a full picture of any points to discuss.

Emgee

On 22 February 2025 at 19:58 Lathejack Said:

A few months ago a friend and myself clubbed together to buy this new Sieg SC4 Lathe from Arceurotrade.

Apart from a quick look and check that it worked when it arrived …

 

But today I lifted the lid off the crate and had a closer look and fiddle with it. I noticed that …

Pays to play the game buying hobby equipment!  Building down to a price minimises the expensive factory inspections that multiply the price of industrial equipment by 6 to 20 times above hobby price.   In effect the final check is passed to the customer, who normally finds minor problems like switches come loose in transit, but might also come across worse defects.   These are dealt with by the supplier, but the complaint has to be made reasonably quickly.

All other SC4 Lathes I have seen do have this mounting surface for the milling attachment, … I don’t know if Sieg have stopped including it, or if we just happen to have an odd lathe that does not.

I advise not relying on experience when a feature like this matters.  Don’t assume!    Whether or not a bed provides the fixing is in the manufacturer’s hands.  He might cast a few thousand beds for the combo version before realising it wasn’t selling and then use them up on ordinary lathes.  Then the next batch of bed castings are simplified – cheaper, but maybe surprising a customer.

The other item I noticed is the very bad 4 inch 3 jaw chuck…

Sounds like a lemon slipped through the net.  Talk to ArcEuro.

But I just wondered if anyone has fitted a 5 inch chuck to the SC4 lathe and if the lathe has coped with it OK.

…

Can’t answer the question without knowing what ‘coped with it OK‘ means!

5″ chucks are considerably heavier than 4″, which stresses the bearings, drive train, motor, and electronics,  eventually causing a premature failure.  A 130mm chuck is roughly double the weight (5.6kg) of a 100mm chuck (3.2kg)   And because a 5″ chuck will also hold heavier jobs than a 4″, the extra stress could be considerable.

Thing is the extra loads are unlikely to cause a spectacular instant failure, and may take years to show up.  Eventually is not black and white predictable!

• Wear and tear caused by occasional overloading might never become noticeable, but,
• Continuous heavy overloading causes rapid wear.  If the operator forgets it’s a hobby machine, loads a hefty lump of metal, and then hacks into it aggressively for tens of minutes.   One rough session could pop the electronics and burn the motor.  And less obviously take a few years off the bearings too.

Lightly built hobby machines last for donkeys years when driven within their limits.   Depends on what the owner wants, especially as most machines will take mild abuse without obvious consequences.  But the owner might be happy to thrash one until it breaks and then replace/repair.

If a 5″ chuck is essential and will be worked hard, then I suggest buying a bigger lathe.  However, if the 5″ chuck is lightly used, then an SC4 will cope.    It’s what the operator does with the lathe that makes the difference.

My sympathies – we all want new lathes to arrive in good working order and it’s a ******* nuisance when one doesn’t.

Dave

I bought a Sieg SC4 from arc euro last year, and it doesn’t have the fixing block for a milling attachment.  No big deal really for me.  The supplied chuck is fine, the jaws are a little sloppy but it is quite accurate, within a couple of thou.

Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a SC4 with a milling attachment.

The first thing I did was to drastically reduce the size of the silly extra large swarf back splash,  cut off about six inches to bring it closer to the bed. Fits on the bench top nicely now.

Regards IanJ