(232,’2006-07-21 12:00:00′,’figNoggle’,’2006-12-20 08:04:55′,’david’,’7x Series Mini Lathe Backlash’,”,’This quick note is long overdue.

One of the major issues with the 7x series Sieg minilathes is that there’s backlash. In any variety whether it’s the 7×10 (the bed is too short if you plan on drilling and you can just about forget about reaming!) offered by Harbor Freight and ENCO or the 7×12 offered by Cummins, Grizzly, Northern Tool, Clarke and a host of others, or the 7×14 sold excusively by Micro-Mark (btw, get this one if you can spare the extra cash – the extra bed length is well worth the price differential alone!) , the cross slide has significant backlash.

One of the mods that is a must if CNC’ing it would be to address backlash in the stock brass nut under the cross slide. The quick and easy fix? Split the nut like we did with the X2 nuts.

Depending on how you intend to drive the 7x (via direct connection to the leadscrew on the handle end or via pulleys on the handle end or driving it from the exposed end of the screw), you’ll run into this problem and with our mini-lathe backlash at over 0.010″, this would be fine for woodworking, but for small steam engines or other projects where tighter tolerances are required (say, under 0.005″) it could mean an engine that doesn’t run.

That’s really the only downside of the 7x models. Other than that, it’s a great little machine!

‘,’

This quick note is long overdue.

One of the major issues with the 7x series Sieg minilathes is that there’s backlash. In any variety whether it’s the 7×10 (the bed is too short if you plan on drilling and you can just about forget about reaming!) offered by Harbor Freight and ENCO or the 7×12 offered by Cummins, Grizzly, Northern Tool, Clarke and a host of others, or the 7×14 sold excusively by Micro-Mark (btw, get this one if you can spare the extra cash – the extra bed length is well worth the price differential alone!) , the cross slide has significant backlash.

One of the mods that is a must if CNC’ing it would be to address backlash in the stock brass nut under the cross slide. The quick and easy fix? Split the nut like we did with the X2 nuts.

Depending on how you intend to drive the 7x (via direct connection to the leadscrew on the handle end or via pulleys on the handle end or driving it from the exposed end of the screw), you’ll run into this problem and with our mini-lathe backlash at over 0.010”, this would be fine for woodworking, but for small steam engines or other projects where tighter tolerances are required (say, under 0.005”) it could mean an engine that doesn’t run.

That’s really the only downside of the 7x models. Other than that, it’s a great little machine!

‘,”,”,”,’Sieg-7x107x127x14-Mini-Lathe’,”,0,”,0,4,1,1,’article’,”,”,’7x-series-mini-lathe-backlash’,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,’319b4f63b080f3ed86ac6b87c4471dab’,’2006-07-21′);