Anyone use a UNIMAT on a regular basis?

[flexible_coupling]

I'm considering buying a "serious bit of hardware" to help in my future model-building exploits. I live in VERY small quarters at present (and for the immediately-foreseeable future) - and the idea of a well-placed vacuum cleaner hose, possibly a cardboard-box "cupboard" to restrict the flight path of swarf, and a compact mill/lathe setup such as the Unimat 1 Classic looks like a brilliant option. 'Scary Ideas' like S7 have previously been ruled out as I don't have any other access to such equipment. To then actually have a metal lathe and a mill, to enable accurate and neat scratchbuilding of chassis etc. would be excellent and would open the door to many possibilities. I'm just wary of ending up with a white elephant - I would like to be able to look at machining down wheels, potentially making custom brass bearings, chimneys and domes and little fittings, and milling up nylon or brass chassis frames. The description of being able to turn "soft metals" concerns me slightly... I still have the fundamentals from high-school metal shop in the back of my mind - cut slowly and gradually and keep it lubricated - curious to see if anyone's been-there-and-done-that with machining steel wheel tyres with these little beasties?

 

[Overseer]

The Unimat 1 Classic is not a serious bit of hardware. All it has in common with the Unimat SL and Unimat 3 is the name. Even a different manufacturer. All the reviews I have seen are very negative. Don't waste your money. A Unimat 3 is very capable for its size, turning wheels, domes etc, etc. The more recent Unimat 4 is similar to the 3 but not as well finished and the motor is substandard. A second hand Unimat 3 or SL would be a much better option. You could also look at the Carbatec.com.au website as they sell the Chinese copy of the Unimat 3 as their C0 lathe, made by Seig, which is probably ok but may need a better chuck.

 

[flexible_coupling]

The free lunch escapes out the side door... figures! It's interesting to see that relatively small-footprint options are there.

 

[JimG]

If you are looking at turning wheels in 7mm scale then you do need a bit of low speed grunt on your spindle to do the job, especially if you want to use a form tool on the tyre. If you are limited for space you might dig around on the second hand market for a Flexispeed/Simat/Perris/Cowells lathe. All these makes were basically the same lathe which passed through several owners/producers ove rthe years and is currently being made by Cowells as their ME90. these lathes have back gear on the spindle which provides the low speed/high torque required for larger diameter wheel work. This web page gives a sort of development history of the lathe

http://www.lathes.co.uk/flexy/index.html

If you go chasing one, make sure it has backgear since the earlier models did not.

Here's the later Perris version complete with slotted crosslide which is very handy if you want to mill in the lathe

http://www.lathes.co.uk/perris/

And then the Cowells ME90 which is virtually the same as the Perris.

http://www.lathes.co.uk/cowells/

You can get a brand new Cowells today but you might find the price a bit eye-watering, although it is probably cheaper than some RTR locos in 7mm and 3/8" scales.

Jim.

 

[Tim V]

The Unimat 1 was reviewed by Stan Bray in Model Engineer 03/05/85. Basically, if used within its limits, it's quite good. Those limits though are quite low.

Stan tried turning an O gauge cast iron wheel, once the hard outer skin had been filed off, he was able to turn the wheel in cuts of 3-4 thou. Cuts on brass and free cutting mild steel were made of 25 thou.

However, as others have said, you would be better spending your money elsewhere. What Stan was doing would be pushing the machine to its limits.

 

[taliesin]

How about the Peatol lathe? Cheers Rob

 

[ScottW]

I owned a Unimat 1 many, many years ago. It eventually ended up on the tip. A complete load of rubbish!!

Having just looked at todays price's I would recommend you spend your money on something far better. Have you looked at any of the Chinese imports? I believe the quality is getting better. I bought a SIEG milling machine from arceurotrade a few years back and I'm very happy with it. They also do small lathes starting from around £255.

Scott

 

[flexible_coupling]

It's a shame - but not a completely surprising shame - that one can't get the metaphorical free lunch of a decent bit of kit in a small space that will fundamentally do two roles of milling and metal-lathe work. My budget and free space won't permit two machines at this stage - down the track, it'll be no issue to have both a lathe and a mill, and decent ones at that. But yeah... for the present, I shan't waste my precious money. I'll look further into up-to-date rapid prototyping for complex shapes instead... and live with perfectly-acceptable-to-me O-MF standards!!