Untitled Gardening Project #5

[xiphmont]

Turn the unfinished side of each of the 96 discs down to a final thickness of .625". Similarly, turn each cylinder down to a final height of 2.500". Only the discs pictured below, despite the fact I could have sworn I took a picture of the discs and cylinders together.

Comments

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

I love the light in that last picture.

[flaggday.livejournal.com]

As exciting as your little disks and cylinders are, I'm actually interested to know about the guest star that keeps poking in shots- that is, what appears to be a consumer/hobbyist cnc lathe? What is it/who makes it/how do you like it/etc?

the Lathe

[xiphmont.livejournal.com]

It's a 'MicroMark 7x14', a rebranded Sieg C3 model 350. The lathe isn't CNC although there are CNC kits for it. I also have a relatively tricked-out Sieg "Super X0" mill that will be making cameo appearances as well.

The Sieg tools are all similar. On the plus side they're very inexpensive, relatively beefy, and made of good materials. On the downside, the designs are quirky, the 'fit and finish' are half-hearted at best, and they generally leave out anything not absolutely necessary for basic operation (eg, none of the cranks/screws have thrust bearings, etc).

I treated both the mill and lathe as if they were kits when they arrived, tearing both down, going over the assembly carefully, and adding pieces/features I wanted (eg, added thrust bearings, DRO, etc to the mill). So, I spent alot of effort on setup, but once set up both have been solid workers.

The Sieg tools are rebranded and sold by a bunch of the low-end machine tool companies like Grizzly, Harbor Freight and MicroMark. The two other well known 'hobbyist' size machine tool makers are Taig and Sherline, and both sell their tools directly. The Taig and Sherline tools are both finely made and intended to be used with no setup hassle straight out of the box. Sherline sells completely assembled/intgrated CNC versions of their tools, complete with a cheap PC preloaded with the software to run them.

Sherline: Kitchen sink included, beautifully made, but lightweight compared to the others. The Sherline tools are not really beefy enough for metalwork beyond light aluminum cutting. They're substantially made of aluminum. Their accessories are also really good and, oddly, beefier than their mill or lathe (stainless and hardened steel instead of alunimum). I have Sherline rotary table I like very much.

Taig: Stronger and more capable than the Sherline, not as pretty, a little more minimalist, more expensive. CNC options available, but not as a complete, ready-to-run system. Intended to be mixed/matched into other parts for more serious hobbyists. Still lightweight compared to Sieg.

Sieg: Beefy, lots of cast iron, but mediocre details/assembly. Strong/rigid enough to cut aluminum, steel, bronze, etc. Fantastically cheap (you;d think the raw iron alone would be more expensive). If you put the effort into refining/setting them up, they'll be more capable than the Taig or Sherline in the end-- but it's trading time/effort for money.

They're all hobby-grade, very small machines. Nothing in the list would compare to, eg, a Bridgeport or South Bend. On the other hand, being able to actually lift the tools yourself (with effort) can be considered a plus. They fit nicely on a heavy bench.

Re: the Lathe

[(Anonymous)]

er, the mill is a 'Super X1' not a 'Super X0'. Sieg does make an X0, it's a tiny little drill-press like tool.