Seig tools

[Tin Falcon]

gus asked in a different thread about the seig lathes and mills specifically the mini c-2 c-3 x-2 sizes. This has been discussed before. and likely will be again.

these are capable small hobby machines. And people use them for small business applications as well. In general with any chinese machine look at the specs and expect it to do a little less.. they are basically pre assembled kits good casting good bones but need some help help in the fit finish adjusting and lubricating. they come on a slow boat from china and are coated with gunk that takes time and effort to remove.

all of these machines come from the same factory. some vendors have them built better with some of the desirable upgrades done in the factory. these things include metal gears cam lever tail stock better grade more powerful motor etc. Littlemachineshop.com in the west and microMark in the east sell the improved upgraded models.
Jet will tell you they sell the pick of the litter. Grizzly sells the fact they have qc people at the factory. Harbor Freight is considered by many as selling the leftovers after the other vendors take there pick. And I will tell you my red Micromart mill gas grizzly green paint in the shadows.

LMS and micromark have lots of add ons available.


my first lathe is a grizzly 7x10 10" is tight 12 or 14 much better. but is has served well and needed few repairs. the x-2 has also served well and no major problems.

one weak point of both machines is lightning will kill the control boards. IIRC less than $10 in parts to repair. but I recommend keep unplugged when not in use or at least at any sign of lightning.

I recomend anyone considering these machines download the manuals from Littlemachineshop. they are generic. Read through them. Also browse the various sites that show modifications .
this research will show more of the potential and out of the factory shortcomings of these machines. all in all good bang for the buck and good starter machines.

If you want usa made quality in a slightly smaller unit look at the Taig or sherline.
Tin

 

[gus]

Did not want to name supplier earlier. I have been buying cutters and misc from Littlemachineshop. Is it true,same shop will deliver quality lathe and quality vertical mill in good working condition to Campbellsville,Kentucky.
This is for a good friend that stood by me during my darkest hour,Certification Audit for ISO 9002 in 1997. We scraped through with some repairs to do with the Findings cited.

I have first hand experience in China with air compressors,spent last 7 years as consultant trying to improve quality.I am Singapore Chinese and despite no language problem,I did not go too far. Was making good progress 2004-----2008.When my export orders poured in, shipping on time was more important than quality.Quality went down the drain.Gus sacked the boss.I left China with my dignity intact.

I saw Sieg Lathes in the Shanghai and Guangzhou Trade Shows.Quality display was good. Quality delivered may suffer.


Need some assurance Sieg Lathe from Littlemachineshop will be good buy. Attached is a steam engine built some years back. Been a great day.Gus could attached a foto. More to come.

 

[Tin Falcon]

gus: I own Seig tools and am happy with them . I have met the owners of LMS face to face on multiple occasions. they sponsor seminars at cabin fever expo and they support the hobby. Imho these guys do not sell anything that they would not personally use in there own home shops. If you are interested in there tools and have concerns call them and talk to them. LMS is a small family business and you can talk to the owners. You can see there product on the East coast in York PA . unfortunately the next show is next April.But if you pre order and pick up at the show you can get deep cuts on shipping.

so options 1) call Carl or Chris from LMS and ask if they are willing to personalty inspect a lathe and mill and ship them to you.

2)Meet them at the next cf show and inspect what is on display if you like it buy it take it home.

3)If you want to go the inspect before you buy route and you want to buy soon Grizzly in Springfield Mo is about 9 hours from the location you mention.

My army training from many years ago stressed "do not expect what you do not inspect' you really do not know exactly what you are getting until you get it. The only way to insure quality is to pick up at the warehouse and insect before you take home.
micro mark is in northern NJ I picked up my mill from there stor. but it would be a 12 hour drive from KY.

So you have a choice trust the folks at LMS or micro mark to send a good machine or take a road trip and insect before you buy.
A lot of these machines have been sold and IIRC only heard of one major issue.
Tin

 

[SilverSanJuan]

So far I've bought all my tooling from LMS. I'm super impressed with their products and customer support. I live in the East so I have to have everything shipped. Everything shows up well packed and damage free. I bought their Hi-torque mill (which is the Sieg X2 I believe) and I'm very happy with it. LMS will keep getting my business.

Todd

 

[pete]

I'll highly agree about LMS, their a great company with great service.

I'd certainly hope Seig has more than one level of quality and accuracy for the various dealers. The C-6 I bought thru a dealer here in Canada has some major issues with even the basic alignments between the headstock and tailstock, and more than a few other problems. Pointing uphill .009 in two inches on that tailstock is I happen to think totally unacceptable. I could and have done a lot better with a well aligned drill press. Maybe I got a lemon? But where's the bare minimum of quality control? Personally I'll never again buy any machine tool that doesn't come with a test or DIN certificate. Without that, you have nothing to compare it to. As far as a dealer is concerned, you bought a lathe, yours looks and operates like a lathe, so it's fine no matter how inaccurate it was built. I'm not expecting Hardinge or Monarch 10EE levels of accuracy. I do expect at least some effort by any factory that wants my repeat business. That C-6 does a fine job at breaking the tips off center drills, or drilling and reaming way oversize holes though. Yeah I can or could have fixed it, I didn't pay for any lathe to remachine it to correct what the factory should have done right to begin with.

The lathe I bought to replace that C-6 does come with a proper test certificate. My tests show that those factory tests are slightly worse than what the actual readings are. Maybe I spent more time and effort setting up and making them? For myself I won't be buying anymore Seig machine tools.

Pete