Emco Unimat SL

[Barking Mat]

It's a little little lathe.

Found this in a scrap yard for €10.

Couldn't say no.

It was unloved, and the motor bracket is broken.

So I gave it a good covering in penetrating oil, left it half an hour, repeated, dismantled the majority of it apart from the tail stock, the apron, ways and base plate got a good cleaning, I freed up the chuck, cleaned the lead screw...

What I like about this lathe is you can lift it with one hand.

After an hour, it's looking like this.

 

[Barking Mat]

I'll get a better photo in a minute.

Jewellery / model engineering ?

What would you do with it ?

What's it for ?

 

[Porkypine]

Small scale model engineering type thing, I think they still might make the unimat machines and all the accessories , a bargain for a tenner

 

[brightspark]

my brother once bought one out of the catalogue forty quid brand new sold it for a bit more .you see them advertised round the 300 quid mark for a decent one

 

[Porkypine]

Any of those small lathes seem to be silly money on ebay for sure.
I've got one of those peatol/taig things in bits I must dig out, assemble and have a play with.

 

[Barking Mat]

I'm getting into some heavy engineering tonight.

 

[optima21]

they really were "universal machines" if you got all the accessories for them. many years ago I had a friend who used to manufacture parts for slot cars (think of scalextric but much faster) he needed a tyre truing machine, but said he couldn't make one as he didn't have a milling machine. I didn't have a milling machine either at the time, but had my hobbymat lathe and a drill. I can remember seeing the Unimat SL and thought about using the two parallel round bars to make the bed for the tyre truer. so a couple of weeks later he had a suitable machine. (which he got for free as it was made from parts out of the scrap bin. I did think about getting a Unimat 3 (later version of the SL) rather than my Hobbymat, but I thought the Unimat was a little small.

and a link to show the accessories for an Unimat.

refference

unimat,lathe,belts, manual, book emco, edelstaal,parts, db, sl, unimat 3, mini lathe, db200, sl1000

unimat.homestead.com

 

[Barking Mat]

they really were "universal machines" if you got all the accessories for them. many years ago I had a friend who used to manufacture parts for slot cars (think of scalextric but much faster) he needed a tyre truing machine, but said he couldn't make one as he didn't have a milling machine. I didn't have a milling machine either at the time, but had my hobbymat lathe and a drill. I can remember seeing the Unimat SL and thought about using the two parallel round bars to make the bed for the tyre truer. so a couple of weeks later he had a suitable machine. (which he got for free as it was made from parts out of the scrap bin. I did think about getting a Unimat 3 (later version of the SL) rather than my Hobbymat, but I thought the Unimat was a little small.

and a link to show the accessories for an Unimat.

refference

unimat,lathe,belts, manual, book emco, edelstaal,parts, db, sl, unimat 3, mini lathe, db200, sl1000

unimat.homestead.com

I've had a vague google, there's loads of attachments, including one which turns it into a vertical mini mill.

Just curious.

Showed a mate earlier, he absolutely loved it, might just give it to him, I'll never use it, it would just sit on the side and look pretty.