Is this lathe any good? help/advise please

[klutz_100]

This hobby lathe is up for sale on my local auction site and I am seriously tempted so I need your advice, please

It's a Unimat 1 and currently bidding at approx. U$40.

I have never turned anything more adventurous than a pancake in my life but after seeing some great stuff on this forum would love to try and get into it.

Is this lathe any good? Does anyone have one? Will it turn aluminium parts? Is it too much of a "toy"? What would be a reasonable price? Am I dreaming here?

I would really appreciate your input.

PS I am not expecting to get into MPWR, Robrex etc. territorty, just have some simple fun



Thanks for your time.

[ChicoBR]

Originally Posted by klutz_100

This hobby lathe is up for sale on my local auction site and I am seriously tempted so I need your advice, please

It's a Unimat 1 and currently bidding at approx. U$40.

I have never turned anything more adventurous than a pancake in my life but after seeing some great stuff on this forum would love to try and get into it.

Is this lathe any good? Does anyone have one? Will it turn aluminium parts? Is it too much of a "toy"? What would be a reasonable price? Am I dreaming here?

Thanks for your time.

Hi,

It is ok to work with wood or plastic, but for metal, forget!
I just sold one of these for Us$ 350,00 here in Brazil.

Francisco

[MPWR]

Welllll.....

Hard to say, depends on a number of things. If it's in good condition, than the equipment itself is worth $40. Does it have a motor, or do you need to provide one? And what does it include in accesories? From the pic, looks like theres a 3(?) jaw chuck, a two axis slide with tool post, and maybe a live center at the other end of the lathe bed? Is there a drill chuck? Any way to use end mills? Is that two motors I see on it? In alot of ways, the capabilities od machine tools are determined by accessories. I have no idea what is availible for the Unimat. Of course, once you know how to machine, you can make some of your own accessories....

By reputation, the Unimat is a small modular lathe/mill suitable for small machinig tasks, like in model making. It should have no trouble with alumminum (course, I've never seen one, so that's an assumption). Could be great for shock dampers and brake rotors and the like. I've heard it doesn't have alot of ridgidity to it, but for small detail parts, it shouldn't be much of a problem.

It could certainly be a useful tool for modeling- but if you don't have cutting tools, or a drill chuck, or a source of metal stock, etc., its use could be frustratingly limited.

The more you can say about it, the more I can probably help you.

[hirofkd]

That's the lathe I use, and for small parts made of soft materials like styrene and various kinds of putty, it's adequate.
I think $40 is pretty reasonable as long as it works and comes with most of accessories.

[klutz_100]

thanks for the feedback guys.

The seller tells me that it includes the following (badly translated into English by me since I don't have the riht vocabulary ):
1 x long track 28,5cm
2 x short tracks 15cm
2 x engines
2 x gear boxes
Polishing/grinding wheel
Tooth wheel
Lathe holder/jaw
bi-directional knife/cutting tool holder
Turning knife/cutting tool
adjusting key
connecting pieces

does that make any sense to you?

another couple of pics:








I'm thinking that if the price doesn't go too high, I'm going to risk it...

[MPWR]

Sounds good to me. If it's functional (and it looks like it should be), you will definately find use for it in modeling. Even if you can't machine aluminum, machining nylon, styrene, or acrylic plastic can be just as useful (and we've all painted palstic to look like aluminum before!).

You will need to get a set of dial/digital calipers (if you don't already have some).



They're incredibly useful in modeling weather or not you have machine tools- I've actually been considering posting a how to on using them. 20-30 USD will get you an entirely usable set.

Good luck with it- I'll be curious to hear how it comes out.

[Hiroboy]

I found this info, Hope it helps:

The unimat classic is a benchtop wood lathe, sander, milling machine, metal lathe, bench drill, and jigsaw all in one!

1. Horizontal & vertical mill the included fittings allow horizontal & vertical milling in woods, plastics, metals & many other materials. A hss milling cutter is included, but you can use virtually any commercially available milling cutters up to a fixing diameter of 6mm.

2. Metal turning lathe turn soft metals like a professional toolmaker. Longtitudinal & cross slides with mm scaled handwheels allow for precise work to an accuracy of 0.03mm! Built with the same quality components as an expensive lathe, the unimat 1 allows the user to produce fine items such as axles, gears, couplings rims and pulleys.

3. Wood turning lathe enables elaborate pieces to be produced in a wide variety of woods. With a distance between centres of 135mm (which can be expanded to 324mm) and a maximum centre height of 25mm (extendable to 50mm with an optional part) the wood lathe can smoothly turn a wide range of parts.

4. Jigsaw the powerful jigsaw can be used with plywood, balsa, plastics and thin sheets of soft metal. It has a cutting capacity of 12mm in ply and 7mm in solid timber such as obechi. Ideal for fretwork, cutting out windows and doors, primming of pcb's etc, etc. The jigsaw uses very short strokes for precise cutting - but it only vibrates so it won't cut you even if your finger is pushed against the blade!

5. Sander the sanding disc provides the perfect finish to your parts after cutting and shaping. The sander can also be detached for hand held use.

6.hand held / bench drill using 3 precision slides, 2 of which can rotate through 360 degrees, the bench drill is capable of precise drilling at every conceivable angle! The drill unit can also be removed for hand held use.

[klutz_100]

Thanks again gents!

Now let's just see how the price holds out! I'm nt biddin yet to naively not show my interest and have set the alarm in my mobile to go for a last minute bid ...let's see now I just need a PE set and some resin and ......some time to actually build something which has been a big problem for me over the past couple of months