Sieg SC4 cross slide roughness

Sieg SC4 cross slide roughness

This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 5 October 2025 at 16:17 by Michael Gilligan.

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4 October 2025 at 18:39 #818738
timdotd
Participant
@timdotd
I’ve just got my Sieg SC4 set up, and so far it’s lived up to the praise I’ve read here…

There’s just one glitch – the cross slide feels like it has a “sticky” patch. Once per rotation of the hand wheel, it feels like there’s a gear binding in the mechanism. It’s smooth about 270 degrees round, but then there’s a stiff sector – it “bumps” a few times as if there are gear wheels that are too tightly meshed, but then releases and is fine for the next 270 degrees of rotation. It’s the same across the whole range of cross slide travel.

All the other motions seems fine, albeit with a bit of backlash in the carriage.

Could this be something to do with the cross slide backlash adjustment?
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4 October 2025 at 19:25 #818747
JasonB
Moderator
@jasonb
Does it do it when feeding by hand, power crossfeed or both?

Is it the same fur the full length of travel or more of a problem when the cross slide is towards you rather than fully towards the back?
4 October 2025 at 21:58 #818771
Bazyle
Participant
@bazyle
If it has power cross feed it seems like the final gear in that transmission – ie the one on the feedscrew, is dirty or the two final gears are meshing too tightly and one of them is a little eccentric.
5 October 2025 at 15:47 #818849
timdotd
Participant
@timdotd
So the cause/solution turned out to be <b>embarrassingly</b> simple.

The cross slide handle mount was mounted to the saddle ever so slightly too low, so the lead screw didn’t have quite enough clearance from the feed gears. After slackening the bolts off, raising it about half a millimetre was enough to ease the gears, and the feed loosened up…
5 October 2025 at 16:17 #818862
Michael Gilligan
Participant
@michaelgilligan61133
‘embarrassingly simple’ is a very good result !

MichaelG.
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