Pimping the C2A lathe.

Both of my lathes are clones sold by Chester Tools. Apart from the colour of the paintwork and certain “clone arranger” bits and bobs the Sieg C-2A is sold by a number of retailers. My hands are getting very stiff and going numb. I admit it was this that made me start on the track of improvement, (“pimping”), the lathe to allow for the fact that I am getting rapidly older!

The first thing I had to change was the nut that held the tail stock to the dovetail beam. This was replaced with the M10 chromed lock bar, normally found holding the tool post… Believe it or not itfits like a dream and removed endless tedious fiddling with the spanner to lock or unlock it. You canget a lever arm cam lock tail stop -but they are normally out of supply for several months. At this point I removed the slotted length of black threaded bar that acted as an end stop and replaced it with a chrome cap head allen -thus making it a lot easier for me to see.

I replaced the stop lever clamp on the tail stock with the same item that I had used to replace the holding nut with. Again a dead easy swap. Visually an improvement to the looks, but for me the ballend made it easier to use as I could slap it with the flat of my right hand -and it didn’t hurt!

The last item to be replaced with the tool post bar was the half nut clamping lever. This I “nutted up” a good centimetre out from its original position with an slimmed down M10 nut. Now it was possible for me to get my fingers behind the lever and apply some force to hold the half nuts in place, some people have removed one of the half nuts to ensure clamping.

The next thing that had to be altered were the original “ball spinner” handles to “full size” wheels with handles. It is not that the ball spinners are not serviceable -it was the fact that my fingers were having trouble closing the “gap” need to grasp them… So it was off with the ball spinners and Ebayprovided some chromed cast iron wheels with twirler bars that I could lodge between my fingers. My fingers could easily grasp the rim of the wheel -and we were in business again!!!

A little work with an M8 drill made them all metric, (the chroming had encroached on the holes) and then some Loctite Green made sure that they would not move again without some extreme solvent action. There were a few, “personalisation points”, due to the fact I am severely left handed and the only real use I have for my right hand -is holding a mug of tea or gingernuts.

The original chuck was an 80mm three jaw, which is a useful size, but I really needed something bigger. I have a 125mm four jaw that I have used for several years, on both the C-1 and C-2A but at 4.3Kg -it is definitely getting a struggle to swap out(!) I purchased a three jaw 100mm chuck at the Fosse -which will probably be the main chuck on this lathe. The drive stub on the C2A is a three hole with a diameter of 72mm and it uses three M8 bolts to fasten to the adaptor plate and attached chuck to it. I normally file “patch marks” into the chuck and plate to align them up to the drive stub.Initially these were simple file marks -nowadays I have cut V marks with a Dremel and filled them with paint. Sometimes it stays -but normally it rubs off.

Raw Stub Stub with 100mm Adaptor plate

The new chuck will have to have the back plate turned to fit the lathe -an annoying and fiddly operation. But once enough has been skimmed off the plate the rear of the chuck will slide cleanly over it and the plate and chuck are nutted into one.

There is also a “Keats Block” which I use only very rarely, as I confess that it is terrifying to see it going round, (the out of balance sway on the 45Kg lathe is unreal) -but on the other hand it will grip and hold just about anything… For very fine work, (axles & making tubes, etc), I have an ER32 collet chuck with which I will confess an extreme love hate relationship(!)

I have a collection of “toys” to put into my tail stock. As both the C-2A tail stock and the X-1 milling machine use MT2 fittings and they all have an M10 drawbar they find joint use. The most useful thing that have amongst them is the thread tap & die holder kit. Yes, I can get the same effect re-arranging the timing gears -but I find it far easier just to slot in the correct tap/die and watch the head stock creep along the bar. There is the boring head which I class as “useful but not essential”. It can produce accurate strange sized holes and exteriors -but good design work should eliminate the need for strange sizes...

I also have in the parts draw, the replacement bearing for the head stock. The ones supplied are std ball races -which work very well. The replacement ones are sealed angular captive ball bearings which will stabilize the shaft rather more than the current ball races. Other users have use open taper roller races, (which may be better), but are more difficult to fit. The back lash and greasing problems are major negative points for me. I got my sealed angular contact ball races off the Internet for £6 each -they are made by Dunlop. There were cheaper ones, (made by firms I had never heard of) and a pair of ceramic high speed centrifuge ones by SLM rated at 150k RPM and 180 Metric tonnes side loading that at £135 – even I deemed them excessive. (But it would still be “really cool” to have them fitted)…

The last major addition is one I have contemplated for several months -liquid cooling the cutting. I was raised in a household were my fathers overalls stank of “white water” from the machines he used and the machines he supervised users of. There is a “drain hole” in the base of the lathe to connect a liquid return to. This requires the assembly of a pump, a returns tank/filtration system andcoolant mix. The cheapest kit I could find to do this was £160. Then, (as it does), YouTube came to my rescue. It showed metal cutting under a SPRAY MIST of coolant. This looked more like what I was looking for and so I investigated Ebay. Yes, it was a lot cheaper than the “Pukkha” pumped liquid cooling and at £5 -it seemed worth a punt. It looks like a simple spray nozzle and pick up tube. Experiments with the amount of air pressure required versus the amount of “bleed” from the coolant supply have been embarrassing…

Varying from a 60PSI water pistol to a choking fog. But I “think” that about 10PSI and a very slow rate is what I am trying to aim for…If this works out then another one for the X-1 Mill will be ordered.