Unimat 1 Classic 6 in 1 Tool 83000 Power Tool

[JamesT1]

Good evening all

 

I have limited space for electrical tools and am thinking of buying the "Unimat 1 Classic 6 in 1 Tool 83000 Power Tool"

 

Do any of you own and use one of these,, if so what are your thoughts on it

 

many thanks

 

JT

[bruce d]

This is a very basic tool so be sure it is adequate for whatever you need to do. Some have only battery power and I do not believe any useful work can be produced without the optional mains adapter.

I own one, which came as part of a larger purchase in a workshop clearout sale, and have tried a few basic moves on it. It will never be my 'go-to' but it did work. The main chucks use an M12x1 thread which is identical to that used on the original (1950s to '70s) Unimat SL/DB range. However, despite being interchangable, the chuck for the Unimat 1 in your picture is an injection-moulded plastic item. OK for really light work but it was never meant to work hard for a living.

It all depends on what you expect to do with a lathe. This is a tool designed to be safe as a child's first serious workshop tool. It will not do any heavy work but it will do light jobs with a good level of controlability, and this may be adequate for your needs. It will not have a long life.

I will defer to anyone who has good experience with a Unimat 1 but, personally, unless the price is really low (and your expectations are modest) I would point you toward a 'proper' small second-hand lathe or a Dremel kit (Proxxon if the budget allows).

One last warning: some sellers are asking absurd prices for these. Check ebay and you will see a wide range of final prices.

HTH

Bruce

[druxey]

I would agree with Bruce in his assessment of this Unimat model. The early ones in good condition will last. I have a 1970 Unimat DB200, still going strong!

[Jaager]

I have a Unimat SL  -  It is now relegated to just the lathe function.  I burned out a motor using it as a table saw.  Everything but the lathe is better done by a single purpose machine.  This even though it is a precise and well made unit.

Unimat I is neither precise nor well made.  It is a toy.  Buy it and feel the sentiment behind the message yelled at generations of army recruits:  you'll be sorrrreeee.

[JamesT1]

Many thanks for the information and advice guys...  much appreciated,, back to the drawing board

[bruce d]

James, what is it you want to do with a lathe? And by the way, which part of the world are you in if you don't mind me asking?

[Bob Cleek]

Ditto to what the others said. It's a plastic toy, not a serious tool for grownups. Somebody bought the Unimat trade name and is capitalizing on the reputation earned by EMCO, the manufacturer of the original Unimat modeling lathes. The current Unimat trademark owners have a higher quality, and higher price point "multi-tool" on the market now. MicroMark sells it for $750. https://www.micromark.com/search?keywords=unimat It appears to still have a lot of plastic parts. You'd be better off buying a used Unimat DB or SL on eBay (the same tool... the model designations depended upon where it was sold.) They were excellent mini-lathes and passable milling machines. I love mine. The other Unimat attachments were only so-so, as is the case with all multi-function machines. Unfortunately, as is often the case with machine tools, the original Unimat tooling is difficult to find and often pricey. For $750 for a basic lathe, you could get a much larger and more capable machine with readily available, and hence less expensive tooling. China is grinding out millions of them these days in the "7"X" range. Precision machining equipment is not cheap. You get what you pay for.

 

See: https://www.micromark.com/MicroLux-Micro-Lathe and https://www.micromark.com/MicroLux-7x16-Mini-Lathe

 

MicroLux is the higher-priced option. Their lathes probably have a bit closer manufacturing specs. You can find the same lathe made in the same Patriotic People's Hobby Lathe Collective factory for much less sold by other retailers. Harbor Freight sells the same unit in a different color, but you may have to bring it back to them three or four times before you get one that is working right out of the box.  

 

Grizzly sells their 4" X 6" micro-lathe for $440, their 7" X 12" mini-lathe for $675, and their 7" X 14" variable speed lathe for $780, plus a number of variants in the same price range. They usually have pretty good Chinese-made stuff.  Those prices are comparable to what you'd pay for a used Unimat DB/SL. The Grizzly Chinese "7" X" lathes all have power-feed and screw-cutting capability for most any threading you'd want. So does the Unimat DB/SL, but it requires a proprietary "threading attachment" with special thread formers and cutters and a power-feed attachment which, if you can find them on the used market, will set you back several hundred dollars and the formers for the various threads will run around $150 each and are only rarely available on eBay. Tooling for the Chinese "7" X" clones is widely available at several levels of quality and price points.

 

The small Asian lathes are the butt of a lot of jokes and with some justification. The quality of Asian machine tools generally aren't anything close to American or European machine tools, but at half to a quarter the price, they are more than adequate for modeling work. Look for the label, "Made in an ISO 9001 Factory." That is a manufacturing quality certification that supposedly insures you are getting a machine made under International Organization for Standardization monitoring and certified to specified accuracy tolerances. This is a "bare minimum" certification level, but it's better than no certification at all. Your best insurance of quality among these lathes, all of which look the same, is the retailer you buy from. The top-end retailers have their reputation on the line and keep a closer eye on quality control over the stock they sell with their label on it.

 

 

https://www.grizzly.com/metal-lathes

https://www.grizzly.com/products/Grizzly-4-x-6-Micro-Metal-Lathe/G0745

 

 

 

https://www.grizzly.com/products/Grizzly-7-x-12-Mini-Metal-Lathe/G8688

Edited July 13, 2019 by Bob Cleek

[druxey]

Depending on how you want to use it, another possibility is a good, used watchmakers' lathe. However, familiarize yourself well with what doesn't come with a used lathe that you will also need to make it of use!

[Jaager]

It is my experience that there is not much on a ship model that requires a lathe.  Most of that (spars) can be accomplished using an electric drill in a shop made clamp.  The one part that would be difficult to fake - turning up 100 cannon - a lathe and pattern duplicator helps here.

The one function that requires a lathe is turning metal to fabricate your own tools.  A machinists lathe is essentially a tool to make tools.

 

A mill is a bit more useful, but it too is a machine to make tools.  It can act as an expensive drill press and allow you to bull thru wood with milling cut - not wise, probably messy.  You can also avoid the expense and get a jewelers generic drill press and a Chinese XY table all for less than $200.  The bearings are not designed for lateral stress, but with wood, sharp cutters and light cuts...

 

Right now, we have the great good luck in the presence of Jim Byrnes.  The tool functions that you would find practically useful in a multi tool, he provides as single purpose machines that are about a hundred times better. 

 

It you are still determined - visit Little Machine Shop  for bench top mills and lathes

Edited July 13, 2019 by Jaager

[Bob Cleek]

2 hours ago, Jaager said:

Right now, we have the great good luck in the presence of Jim Byrnes.  The tool functions that you would find practically useful in a multi tool, he provides as single purpose machines that are about a hundred times better. 

Ditto again on Byrnes Model Machines. You'll get far more use out of a Byrnes saw and thickness or disk sander than any lathe and save a bunch over buying pre-milled wood. Little Machine Shop. http://www.byrnesmodelmachines.com/ 

 

If you want to go the multi-tool route using a Dremel moto-tool, Vanda-Lay Industries has a good line of fixtures using the Dremel at very reasonable prices. Their machined aluminum products are much better than the accessories Dremel markets under the Dremel label.  https://vanda-layindustries.com/ 

 

Little Machine Shop is a one-stop shopping center for small machining. All good quality and fairly priced, but be careful. The lure of their seductive website can be hazardous to your pocketbook! There will be something in there you just have to buy.  https://littlemachineshop.com/?Source=Bing&device=c&keyword=little machine shop&utm_medium=referral

Edited July 13, 2019 by Bob Cleek

[bruce d]

3 hours ago, Bob Cleek said:

... the reputation earned by EMCO, the manufacturer of the original Unimat modeling lathes.

Hi Bob, just a detail in the history of this marque: the Unimat lathes were designed and manufactured by Maier & Company in Austria. The Elliot Machine Company (EMCO) was the UK distributor for the range and had their name on the badge of the models they sold. There was more than one distributor in North America.

In my opiinion, the fully equipped SL model, marketed as the DB in North America, will probably never be bettered as a modelmaker's lathe.

[Bob Cleek]

20 hours ago, bruce d said:

Hi Bob, just a detail in the history of this marque: the Unimat lathes were designed and manufactured by Maier & Company in Austria. The Elliot Machine Company (EMCO) was the UK distributor for the range and had their name on the badge of the models they sold. There was more than one distributor in North America.

In my opiinion, the fully equipped SL model, marketed as the DB in North America, will probably never be bettered as a modelmaker's lathe.

Yes, you're absolutely correct. Mine was originally sold in the UK by Elliott. They were marketed in  the US by American Edelstaal. There is also now reportedly a company in Argentina, ROWIC Unimat, that reportedly manufactures an exact DB/SL copy. http://www.lathes.co.uk/unimat/page15.html  I've attempted to contact them via email to no avail.  

 

It's hard to believe that Unimat DB/SLs went out of production, given how excellent they are. I expect that the decrease in hobby machining and the necessary expense of manufacturing high-tolerance machine tools caused them to be unprofitable for Maier to build anymore. 

 

Or it may be that the Unimat DB/SL is just another Austrian that is rumored to be "alive and well and living in Argentina," but cannot be found.  

[bruce d]

1 hour ago, Bob Cleek said:

... it may be that the Unimat DB/SL is just another Austrian that is rumored to be "alive and well and living in Argentina," but cannot be found.

Of course! How could I have missed it?

On the subject of lathes for modelling (I think that was where we started) the Unimat SL collection of accessories was pretty much complete within a few years of the launch. Milling, dividing, collets and thread cutting were all early options and were popular with watchmakers and jewellers as well as model makers. I have an iron bed early model, two mazac bed later models and a bastardised iron bed that was cut in half and 'stretched' by mounting the two halves on a long bed for making drumsticks! I have no idea what I will eventually do with this long-bed beast but I felt sorry for it and gave it a warm home. Maybe masts?

Edited July 14, 2019 by bruce d

[Bob Cleek]

4 hours ago, bruce d said:

I have an iron bed early model, two mazac bed later models and a bastardised iron bed that was cut in half and 'stretched' by mounting the two halves on a long bed for making drumsticks! I have no idea what I will eventually do with this long-bed beast but I felt sorry for it and gave it a warm home. Maybe masts?

Definitely masts! You could also take the tail half of it and creatively mount it on a base so you could have not only an extended bed, but also a tailstock that could be offset for tapering!

[Jaager]

For the Unimat SL,  which has a relatively short bed for masts,  a denken experiment that uses the steady rest holding a ball bearing race  - the OD just fitting the steady rest opening and ID in various sizes - close to the spar diameter - cardboard to fix and brace the wood. The end over end to shape the other end.

[bruce d]

5 hours ago, Bob Cleek said:

... also a tailstock that could be offset for tapering

Excellent idea.

4 hours ago, Jaager said:

uses the steady rest holding a ball bearing race

Another excellent idea.

When the time comes I will I will let you know how this works out.