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Mini Lathe recommendations?


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Bob, thanks for your response, I appreciate that.

I have the ram removed from the tailstock. I have several spare centres, so I know how long they are. Measuring from the rear of the ram, it's clear there's roughly an inch of metal between the bottom of that hole and the back of the centre, however, as I said, there does appear to be a central 'pusher' pin in there. It's out in my garage soaking in release oil overnight.

I have the manuals, but this pin (if that's what it is) isn't illustrated. The exploded diagram in the literature is of the earlier none-flanged ram/spindle, so it may be different. I'm convinced there must be provision to drift this thing out; it may be stuck in there with dried lubricant. I'll go back to it tomorrow and possibly apply a little heat.

I'm very aware of possibly damaging parts, hence this cry for help, in an attempt to avoid that

I have trawled the net, to no avail and I don't use facebok.

Like lots of restoration projects, there's plenty of info telling you what should happen, but often other peoples experience can be the only solution when it doesn't!

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Shipman,

I have Unimats and must confess I can't picture this pin you describe. However, there is a locking screw on the tailstock to fix the ram in position: is it at all possible what you are dealing with lines up with that screw?

Also, I expect the penetrating oil is a good aproach although it may need a bunch of gentle urging with a hardwood dowel (assuming the pin mystery is resolved).

🌻

STAY SAFE

 

A model shipwright and an amateur historian are heads & tails of the same coin

current builds:

HMS Berwick 1775, 1/192 scratchbuild; a Slade 74 in the Navy Board style

Mediator sloop, 1/48 - an 18th century transport scratchbuild 

French longboat - CAF - 1/48, on hold

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Hi Bruce.

The ram/spindle is removed completely from the tailstock. The grub screw you refer to locates into a milled channel on top of the spindle and has nothing to do with locating the stuck centre. There isn't a witness mark so I discount the possibility that pressure from the screw has distorted anything.

 

Aaaaargh!   Silly me.....it never entered my head to look at the OTHER lathe I have, which has a drill chuck fitted. Doh!

As it's midnight here, it'll have to wait until tomorrow. I'll let you know what happens.

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22 hours ago, shipman said:

Hi Bruce.

The ram/spindle is removed completely from the tailstock. The grub screw you refer to locates into a milled channel on top of the spindle and has nothing to do with locating the stuck centre. There isn't a witness mark so I discount the possibility that pressure from the screw has distorted anything.

 

Aaaaargh!   Silly me.....it never entered my head to look at the OTHER lathe I have, which has a drill chuck fitted. Doh!

As it's midnight here, it'll have to wait until tomorrow. I'll let you know what happens.

Back with a bump! After examining the tailstock spindle in my other lathe, it was clear the spindle is blind bored from both ends. The centre's are a very snug fit in the front bore and have a steep (45degree?) taper land. There is no provision to drift it out if it gets stuck. The cure was application of gentle heat; the temperature differential released the stuck centre! Job done. Like most things mechanical, the best care is to use it and/or do the periodic servicing.

Thank you to Bob and Bruce for their welcome interest.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 7/15/2020 at 7:14 PM, shipman said:

Hi guys. I now have 2 Unimat SL lathes and 1 Unimat 3.

I've recently been making a dedicated work station, drawers, lamp etc.

The first issue I have at my very first step upon stripping and servicing one of the SL's is.. how do you remove a dead centre from the tailstock ram? I've removed the ram. (no corrosion). Inspecting down the hole at the rear, it looks like there's a pin in the middle. Is that correct?

All 3 lathes have been in long term dry storage and need to be checked over. There is no rust on the steel parts, but they are obviously 'dull'.

Just a few photo's of my now restored lathes and my extemporised workstation from dumpster materials. Realised one of the tailstocks is mounted the wrong way! Note the chuck jaw differences (how and why?)

I also made a circular saw table to fit, then put together a free standing mini saw bench which you may find interesting (again, using scrap materials and hand tools).

DSCF1323.JPG

DSCF1328.JPG

DSCF1329.JPG

DSCF1326.JPG

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2 minutes ago, shipman said:

Note the chuck jaw differences (how and why?)

Odds are good that the right hand chuck has a set of Unimat soft jaws. Can't say for certain as there were also some very good aftermarket chucks that (I believe) came with jaws of that shape, possibly the Indian 'Soba' brand.

Free advice, treat it as such: If you have recently acquired these and don't know their history, I suggest a total strip down (three minutes work), de-grease and a tiny touch of copper-grease before reassembly (another three minutes).  The original Unimat chucks were great but many have been in the hands of well meaning users who (a) overtighten them and (b) bung any old grease or oil into their cavaties.

I like the saw table.

🌻

STAY SAFE

 

A model shipwright and an amateur historian are heads & tails of the same coin

current builds:

HMS Berwick 1775, 1/192 scratchbuild; a Slade 74 in the Navy Board style

Mediator sloop, 1/48 - an 18th century transport scratchbuild 

French longboat - CAF - 1/48, on hold

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Hi Bruce. I've just completed a full strip-down, check over and lube job as you suggest. I've had them sitting in a drawer for 25/30 years. Neither seems to have much previous use. The 'standard' chuck is as new, the other had some bruising which I eased out.

The unusual version, on close inspection is identical (machining and stamping) so there's a good chance it's a Unimat component. Both motors are fine and remarkably had new brushes installed. All up and raring to go!

Oh, I also have the associated milling post fittings and a slow speed bracket for each and a dividing head, various adaptors (12/14mm to use stuff from my Unimat 3) and sundry other accessories. It would be nice to have a 'steady'.

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9 hours ago, shipman said:

Both motors are fine and remarkably had new brushes installed. All up and raring to go!

Nice collection! Now you can auction off your first-born child for money to buy tooling on eBay! :D Great machines. For all  the crap the Chinese copy and sell cheap, I can't imagine why they haven't started selling Unimat SL clones. They haven't been in production since the 1970's and the attachments are getting so scarce now that they bring insane prices. Still, they are real gems if you can manage to put together a well-tooled one.

 

Just a note on the off chance you weren't aware, the older U90 motors like you've got there on yours and which now run around $175.00 on US eBay, are not "continuous duty" motors. They are designed for intermittent service. You can look up the details in the Unimat manuals on line, but, as I recall, they are rated for something like a maximum eight minute run time at which point they should be turned off and allowed to cool for an equal amount of time. They don't have an overheating disconnect switch and if they are run too long, particularly under load, they will burn out. The newer U-100 motors (plastic case with orange colored slide switch) are "continuous duty" rated. They run about $235.00 and up on US eBay. 

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Bob, I agree, the SL is a lovely bit of kit. I've enjoyed servicing them. Of course they have their limitations, but for model making and small projects they have a long and fine pedigree.

I'm in the lucky position, where I can use one as a regular lathe and set the other up in milling mode and still have room on my table for breakfast, LOL.

I've even seen (on this forum) a pair set up in tandem to turn long masts. Now that was thinking out of the box and impressed me.

I do have the manual and several books about using the Unimat, so am aware of the motor issue.

Here in the UK, on ebay, it's amazing to see examples in appalling deep rusty condition fetching silly money. Clearly there's a market; but who's buying this stuff?

Your comment suggesting someone would do us all a favour and make clones. Hasn't this forum got strong views on such things? Shame on you.

Take care; be kind.

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6 hours ago, shipman said:

Your comment suggesting someone would do us all a favour and make clones. Hasn't this forum got strong views on such things? Shame on you.

Ha! Being as nobody's making them anymore, as far as I know, I don't think it would hurt anybody's bottom line. (There was an outfit in Argentina that reportedly took over manufacturing them after Emco quit, but I don't think they ever did much of anything with them.) Besides, I doubt there's anything on the Unimat that is patented or copyrighted save, perhaps, the brand name. They haven't been built in going on fifty years. A lathe is a lathe is a lathe. What made the Unimat SL's such good machines were their accuracy and quality of construction. After WWII, there were a lot of unemployed German and Austrian machinists available to direct their energies to building things like Unimats instead of the Reich's war industries. They all started retiring right around the time Emco quit producing Unimats. (Coincidence?) The stuff I'm talking about is all generic, such as collet holders. The Unimat has a threaded spindle, but nobody makes a compression collet holder with the threading to match it. Hence, if you want a Unimat collect holder and a half dozen collets, you'll have to pay somewhere between $700 and $1,000 or more for them. 

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8 hours ago, Bob Cleek said:

Ha! Being as nobody's making them anymore, as far as I know, I don't think it would hurt anybody's bottom line. (There was an outfit in Argentina that reportedly took over manufacturing them after Emco quit, but I don't think they ever did much of anything with them.) Besides, I doubt there's anything on the Unimat that is patented or copyrighted save, perhaps, the brand name. They haven't been built in going on fifty years. A lathe is a lathe is a lathe. What made the Unimat SL's such good machines were their accuracy and quality of construction. After WWII, there were a lot of unemployed German and Austrian machinists available to direct their energies to building things like Unimats instead of the Reich's war industries. They all started retiring right around the time Emco quit producing Unimats. (Coincidence?) The stuff I'm talking about is all generic, such as collet holders. The Unimat has a threaded spindle, but nobody makes a compression collet holder with the threading to match it. Hence, if you want a Unimat collect holder and a half dozen collets, you'll have to pay somewhere between $700 and $1,000 or more for them. 

For that price it would be cheaper to get some craftsman to make them or make them yourself.

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I can't explain why there is a difference, but there are Unimat collet chucks frequently sold on Ebay UK for a lot less than that. There is one at the moment for an SL at £155. The aftermarket items usually take ER16 collets, the originals take E16. You can use ER16s in a chuck made for E16s but not the other way around. E16s are no longer in production so only ER16s matter. There is at least one UK seller who makes ER16 collet chucks with the Unimat M12 x 1 thread, usually around £140.

Let me know if you want to follow up on this, P&P to the USA shouldn't be bad.

 

HTH

Bruce

🌻

STAY SAFE

 

A model shipwright and an amateur historian are heads & tails of the same coin

current builds:

HMS Berwick 1775, 1/192 scratchbuild; a Slade 74 in the Navy Board style

Mediator sloop, 1/48 - an 18th century transport scratchbuild 

French longboat - CAF - 1/48, on hold

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Just for info, I found this interesting video of a clockmaker/joiner's workshop. He has Sherline and German lathes and a Sherline milling machine .....

 

I may have found this link after wandering through MSW and then YouTube, so apologies if it has been linked to before.

 

Richard

 

Edit: Now that I've watched the full video and I realise I have already watched it in the past, most likely through a link on here 🙂

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