Where are our little Unimat Machinists ?

I will likely never participate in a future Unimat thread, as all my lathes are vintage larger.
Regardless, I'd like to encourage all of you.
Please don't believe that you don't belong here, or that you are somehow inferior because your lathe isn't 5,000+ pounds!

There is all kinds of work that those little guys can do, work with which I struggle.
Likewise you will never swing a flywheel from a manure spreader which in needs a new bushing.

Please post!

Daryl
MN
 
Yes, I had one too----Radio Shack tent sale. Hung around for years, but used
it at last to thread Bugatti Hubcaps ....... Nothing else would do.:::::::BLJHB.
 
Gee did Radio Shack sell those too? Must have been many years ago-
My friend is finally escaping the shack before it collapses entirely from mis-management.
She found a better job.
MS
 
Very neat. What model is it? Is the milling set up original or shop made?

David
 
My first piece on my unimat sl1000, a rough draft dead center (in aluminum). Measurements were off from my hand drawing but no matter, a practice piece.

The little lathe cut aluminum as fast as I can move the dials. Made a great little mess as well.
 

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My first lathe was a tiny little Unimat1. It was my dad's before me, and I got far more use out of it, I think. Boy did that thing get some abuse! I believe the motor burned out in the the end and I've got no idea what eventually happened to it, but it led to other machines. My second lathe was a Zyto, then some nameless Myford clone - both were saved from the scrap man and have been donated to others who've wanted to get into machining. I'm still running a small lathe - a little Myford ML10. Fond memories of that Unimat1, though.
 
here are a couple tool design tests on a Unimat SL1000, the last test was a poorly ground carbide test



 
I used to have a couple of them. DB-200s. Got the first one in Long Beach in '69. In a pawn shop. It has followed me around the world several times. Found and built a number of accessories over the years, where and when needed. I did instrument work for industry in the days before solid state wonders. The machine has built and repaired a number of archaic devices. Also did a lot of work with my models when I was still experimenting scales, before I settled on 1:87.(H-O)

In the '90s, I got into a series of projects that involved a number of threaded parts. I finally bought a 9" machine(Grizzly) to do the threads. Drifted away from the UniMat from that. But I hung onto the chucks and other fittings to use with my larger machine(s). The 9" and 12" don't do as good a finish, but almost.

I can't be a contributing member but just had to leave a good word on a fine, albeit small, machine. If it just would have threaded, I likely wouldn't have moved up.

.
 
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