In article ,
Allan Adler wrote:
Thanks for all the critical comments on the Unimat 1. I think ebay is
out of my league, first of all from the standpoint of purchasing online,
secondly from the standpoint of knowing what is worth buying and thirdly
from the standpoint of being able to follow what is going on in an auction.
There's no point in explaining to me how easy it really is to do it; I'm
just not ready for it.
O.K. So be it.
"Module #2 Jig Saw: Completely safe (short stroke only vibrates
the skin); max thickness: 7mm."
That short stroke means that it cannot practically be used with thicker
materials, as there is insufficient stroke to allow the chips to clear
the workpiece.
I wasn't too concerned about the saw, since I figured I can get an electric
jig saw for about $20 or so at a hardware store if the need arises.
Certainly -- I was just using that as an indicator of the
limited capabilities of the rest of the "machine".
The Unimat 1 does at least offer some crummy capability of doing both some
lathe work and some milling machine work. I don't want to do entirely without
milling machine capability and just rely on a lathe for everything. Given
what I'm prepared to spend (under $500),
Note that the Taig at least *used* to be offered with an
optional milling attachment. That was an object which bolted onto the
cross slide, and which had T-slots to allow attaching of workpieces to
the vertical face. And that vertical face can move vertically with a
handwheel at the top. It had two bars of steel which would bolt with
t-nuts to the vertical face, one of which had setscrews to clamp a
workpiece between the two -- sort of a bodyless miling vise. It was not
very good, but more capable than I expect this plastic-bodied device to
be.
I don't see how I can do better
than a Unimat 1, even if it is a piece of junk. Whatever its limitations
are, there must be a way to work with them.
Up to a certain point.
When you are through with this, *you* will be the person who
others are directed to when questions on the Unimat-1 are asked.
Good Luck,
Thanks. Clearly, I'm going to need it.
I apologize in advance for all the questions I'm going to have to ask
about how to get things done on the Unimat 1 after I get it
Remember -- *you* are going to become the expert. I seem to
remember that someone else got one a few years ago, wondering just how
bad it can be. He discovered the answer to that.
and I promise
to accept with good grace and without complaint all of the excellent
advice I will get about how I should really be using some other machine.
I agree with all of it in advance. It's ultimately a question of money
and I have very little discretionary capital. That being the case, I have
to find a way to make the cheap toy do the job, but where there is a will
there is a way. Meanwhile, I don't think I'll be unhappy about using it.
I have a lot of experience learning under the most unlikely conditions.
As I say -- you *will* become the expert.
I once did a lot of things with a Unimat SL-1000. Not because
it was truly capable, but because I only had room for that and a
sensitive drill press (1/8" maximum chuck capacity) in my apartment.
Whenever possible, I would use *real* machines at work, but there were
weekends in which I spent hours setting up to mill a rectangular hole in
1/8" aluminum rack panel for mounting a meter, rather than waiting until
I could take it in to work and find time to do it there.
Enjoy,
DoN.
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