Picked up a C2 a year and a half ago, made some parts on it, nothing real labor intensive.
Working on a project right now that that it would be great to have a lathe for, problem is I need one with at least 18ish" b/w centers or a spindle bore of at least .860 neither of which my little lathe has.
I've read online that people have opened these to .8125 no problem, I'm wondering if the spindle has enough integrity to go bigger.
Looks like the smallest part of the spindle would be the minor diameter of the threads, which are M27x1.5, and would have a minor diameter of .981", so opened to .860 I'd be left with a wall of just under 1/16", probably too thin to rely on, or maybe not?
I'm surprised that nobody has come up with a benchtop lathe w/ at least a 1" spindle bore. Most of what I do is pretty fine work and requires little torque or horsepower, but it would be nice to be able to work through the headstock for additional length.
Re: Sieg C2- How much can you bore out the spindle?
I would vote that a thickness of 0.121 would be on the thin side especially with Chi-Com unknown material of the spindle..... One assumption already is that your machine is within typical specs. If the thread depth exceeds spec you could have even less material. I guess anything is possible but would expect that it would not work under normal operating conditions.