I just picked up a more-or-less complete Unimat -- just because.

I really don't have a use for it (yet), but for $50 including the milling
attachment and wooden case, it seemed too good a piece of mathom-trash to
pass up.

You guys got any good hints on what to do with it, besides sell it to you
or admire it as a dust-collector?

G

LLoyd

Lloyd E. Sponenburgh wrote:
I just picked up a more-or-less complete Unimat -- just because.

I really don't have a use for it (yet), but for $50 including the milling
attachment and wooden case, it seemed too good a piece of mathom-trash to
pass up.

You guys got any good hints on what to do with it, besides sell it to you
or admire it as a dust-collector?

G

LLoyd

Paperweight? Planter stand? :-)

On Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:39:57 +0000, Lloyd E. Sponenburgh wrote:

I just picked up a more-or-less complete Unimat -- just because.

I really don't have a use for it (yet), but for $50 including the milling
attachment and wooden case, it seemed too good a piece of mathom-trash to
pass up.

You guys got any good hints on what to do with it, besides sell it to you
or admire it as a dust-collector?

G

You can make little stuff with it, out of aluminum or brass, using lots of
really light cuts.

--
Tim Wescott
Control systems and communications consulting
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Need to learn how to apply control theory in your embedded system?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" by Tim Wescott
Elsevier/Newnes, http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

I use a mini-lathe for grinding and polishing. That way I don't have
to worry about grit on the ways.

Improvised tool post grinder for a larger lathe. Actually, the Unimat has
an accessory cup-type mounted grinding wheel for light grinding in the
Unimat itself.

http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/sho...ghlight=unimat

I've done a lot of small household repairs with mine over the years. It
machines wood, plastics and non-ferrous metals fairly well. Machining steel
is a pretty patient undertaking but can be done. Incidentally, drive belts
can still be obtained and I've had good luck with ordinary, large o-rings
(available locally from ball bearing suppliers) as drive belts.

David Merrill

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote in message
.70...
I just picked up a more-or-less complete Unimat -- just because.

I really don't have a use for it (yet), but for $50 including the milling
attachment and wooden case, it seemed too good a piece of mathom-trash to
pass up.

You guys got any good hints on what to do with it, besides sell it to you
or admire it as a dust-collector?

G

LLoyd

Lloyd E. Sponenburgh wrote:
I just picked up a more-or-less complete Unimat -- just because.

I really don't have a use for it (yet), but for $50 including the milling
attachment and wooden case, it seemed too good a piece of mathom-trash to
pass up.

You guys got any good hints on what to do with it, besides sell it to you
or admire it as a dust-collector?

G

LLoyd

I also have one, Lloyd. I've had it since about '75. It has been a lot
of fun to play with and I've used it to make some small parts. Keep it
and play with it, you just may grow to like it.

Jim Chandler

On Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:09:22 GMT, "David Merrill"
wrote:

Improvised tool post grinder for a larger lathe. Actually, the Unimat has
an accessory cup-type mounted grinding wheel for light grinding in the
Unimat itself.

http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/sho...ghlight=unimat

I've done a lot of small household repairs with mine over the years. It
machines wood, plastics and non-ferrous metals fairly well. Machining steel
is a pretty patient undertaking but can be done. Incidentally, drive belts
can still be obtained and I've had good luck with ordinary, large o-rings
(available locally from ball bearing suppliers) as drive belts.

I find that my "O" ring drive belts last a lot longer if I keep them
cool by leaving the safety cover open on my Unimat 3. Of course I
don't lean over the head stock with long hair dangling - I keep mine
short and plastered down.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

According to Lloyd E. Sponenburgh lloydspinsidemindspring.com:
I just picked up a more-or-less complete Unimat -- just because.

How complete is "more or less complete" There is "complete" as
in "has what was sold as the base unit", or "compete" as in "has all of
the accessories which I picked up for it later.

Among the accessories there a

1) Flexible shaft tool (this I never had, so I list it first).

2) 4-jaw chuck.

3) Dividing head (with four different dividing index gears.

4) Collet closer nosepiece with a set of fractional collets.
(Look like the ER series except for being smaller and not having
the auto-extraction groove. (This is best used when you are
using it as a milling machine.)

5) Alternate spindle which accepts WW series collets, with a set
of metric collets and of inch collets. plus inside and outside
grip collets for thin workpieces (e.g. coins).

6) Sabre saw attachment.

7) Circular saw attachment.

8) Wood planer attachment.

9) Threading attachment, and many thread masters to use with it.
(An example of a really weird way to do threading. :-)

10) Alternate pulley plate to give two step speed increase or
decrease.

11) Sanding disc with sanding pads to glue on.

12-??) Lots of things which I don't remember.

I really don't have a use for it (yet), but for $50 including the milling
attachment and wooden case, it seemed too good a piece of mathom-trash to
pass up.

And how many here will understand "mathom"? :-)

I still use mine from time to time -- with four other lathes of
various sizes around the house.

You guys got any good hints on what to do with it, besides sell it to you
or admire it as a dust-collector?

I use mine for small wood cutting (circular saw attachment), and
for small turning (with the WW collet spindle), including things like a
setup to crown heads of screws which I make for things which are no
longer offered.

Enjoy,
DoN.
--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
According to Lloyd E. Sponenburgh lloydspinsidemindspring.com:

snip


You guys got any good hints on what to do with it, besides sell it to you
or admire it as a dust-collector?

I use mine for small wood cutting (circular saw attachment), and
for small turning (with the WW collet spindle), including things like a
setup to crown heads of screws which I make for things which are no
longer offered.

You Unimat guys may be interested that an old buddy of mine, former Senior
Editor of American Machinist and a world-class, world-hopping model-glider
flyer named Bob Hatschek, used his Unimat for commercial production of a
neat little device called the "Hatschek Hook." It was a model glider towline
release hook, very fancy with adjustable springs and so on, smaller than a
quarter, that he made on the Unimat and sold through advertisements in the
model flying magazines. It was aluminum with some custom brass screws and so
on. He made a few bucks on them, selling and shipping them all over the
world.

He had a lot of special cutting tools he made for it from piano wire, which
he ground in the hard-drawn condition and used without heat treatment.

--
Ed Huntress

DoN. Nichols wrote:

snipped

I still use mine from time to time -- with four other lathes of
various sizes around the house.



FOUR lathes "around the house"?

I'm guessing either you're single or have a very tolerant spouse. G

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.

(DoN. Nichols) fired this volley in
:

According to Lloyd E. Sponenburgh lloydspinsidemindspring.com:
I just picked up a more-or-less complete Unimat -- just because.

How complete is "more or less complete" There is "complete" as
in "has what was sold as the base unit", or "compete" as in "has all
of the accessories which I picked up for it later.

Among the accessories there a

1) Flexible shaft tool (this I never had, so I list it first).

2) 4-jaw chuck.

3) Dividing head (with four different dividing index gears.

4) Collet closer nosepiece with a set of fractional collets.
(Look like the ER series except for being smaller and not having
the auto-extraction groove. (This is best used when you are
using it as a milling machine.)

5) Alternate spindle which accepts WW series collets, with a set
of metric collets and of inch collets. plus inside and outside
grip collets for thin workpieces (e.g. coins).

6) Sabre saw attachment.

7) Circular saw attachment.

8) Wood planer attachment.

9) Threading attachment, and many thread masters to use with it.
(An example of a really weird way to do threading. :-)

10) Alternate pulley plate to give two step speed increase or
decrease.

11) Sanding disc with sanding pads to glue on.

12-??) Lots of things which I don't remember.

I really don't have a use for it (yet), but for $50 including the
milling attachment and wooden case, it seemed too good a piece of
mathom-trash to pass up.

And how many here will understand "mathom"? :-)

I still use mine from time to time -- with four other lathes of
various sizes around the house.

You guys got any good hints on what to do with it, besides sell it to
you or admire it as a dust-collector?

I use mine for small wood cutting (circular saw attachment), and
for small turning (with the WW collet spindle), including things like
a setup to crown heads of screws which I make for things which are no
longer offered.

Enjoy,
DoN.

All-up as in all the parts are there and they work. There is a 4-jaw
chuck, there is a headstock Jacobs, there is a milling attachment.

And it all functions.

For that light a machine, I could cobble all the others pretty quickly
and easily.

LLoyd

(DoN. Nichols) fired this volley in
:


And how many here will understand "mathom"? :-)

Betcha the average Joe here is more literate than you think G.

LLoyd

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote in message
. 3.70...
(DoN. Nichols) fired this volley in
:


And how many here will understand "mathom"? :-)

Betcha the average Joe here is more literate than you think G.

LLoyd


I have a house full of mathom!

Steve R.


--
Reply address munged to bugger up spammers

According to Ed Huntress :

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
According to Lloyd E. Sponenburgh lloydspinsidemindspring.com:

[ ... ]

You Unimat guys may be interested that an old buddy of mine, former Senior
Editor of American Machinist and a world-class, world-hopping model-glider
flyer named Bob Hatschek, used his Unimat for commercial production of a
neat little device called the "Hatschek Hook." It was a model glider towline

[ ... ]

He had a lot of special cutting tools he made for it from piano wire, which
he ground in the hard-drawn condition and used without heat treatment.

That does sound interesting. I wonder whether he had custom
toolposts as well to go with those. How large is the largest solid
piano wire? I know that many of the larger ones are wound instead of
solid.

Thanks,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
According to Ed Huntress :

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
According to Lloyd E. Sponenburgh lloydspinsidemindspring.com:

[ ... ]

You Unimat guys may be interested that an old buddy of mine, former
Senior
Editor of American Machinist and a world-class, world-hopping
model-glider
flyer named Bob Hatschek, used his Unimat for commercial production of a
neat little device called the "Hatschek Hook." It was a model glider
towline

[ ... ]

He had a lot of special cutting tools he made for it from piano wire,
which
he ground in the hard-drawn condition and used without heat treatment.

That does sound interesting. I wonder whether he had custom
toolposts as well to go with those. How large is the largest solid
piano wire? I know that many of the larger ones are wound instead of
solid.

IIRC, Bob made a four-position turret toolpost for his "production" work.
The largest standard music wire is 1/8". He used that, and slightly smaller
sizes for specific jobs.

We had many lunch discussions about his "manufacturing" operation. g I was
very interested in the piano wire myself. Bob said that cutting aluminum in
such small bites didn't give him any trouble with tool overheating, and the
piano wire was very easy to sharpen. Because it can be bent easily without
annealing, it makes good boring bars and internal threading tools.

--
Ed Huntress

According to Jeff Wisnia :
DoN. Nichols wrote:

snipped

I still use mine from time to time -- with four other lathes of
various sizes around the house.



FOUR lathes "around the house"?

I'm guessing either you're single or have a very tolerant spouse. G

The latter!

And it actually turns out to be six, not four. In order of
size (from the smallest):

1) WW size jeweler's lathe -- often forgotten when I am
enumerating my lathes.

2) Unimat SL-1000

3) Taig (not much larger, but more rigid.

4) Emco-Maier Compact-5/CNC (5" swing -- a bit larger in capacity
than the Taig, but physically larger because of the CNC computer
mounted as a sloping back of the chip tray.

5) Atlas/Craftsman 6x18" -- pretty much ignored these days, as
I have better for each function than that. And it was both
rather beat up in the lathe bed near the chuck, and the bronze
bearings are rather worn.

6) Clausing 12x24" -- with 5C collets and lever closer, and a
choice of a tailstock or a six-station bed turret.

All but the Atlas/Craftsman are in what used to be the garage,
and the Unimat and the Taig are dug out for specific tasks, and otherwse
out of the way. The Atlas/Craftsman is still down in the cellar, as it
has not been worth the trouble of moving upstairs and finding a place to
put it.

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

According to Lloyd E. Sponenburgh lloydspinsidemindspring.com:
(DoN. Nichols) fired this volley in
:

According to Lloyd E. Sponenburgh lloydspinsidemindspring.com:
I just picked up a more-or-less complete Unimat -- just because.

How complete is "more or less complete" There is "complete" as
in "has what was sold as the base unit", or "compete" as in "has all
of the accessories which I picked up for it later.

[ ... ]

All-up as in all the parts are there and they work. There is a 4-jaw
chuck, there is a headstock Jacobs, there is a milling attachment.

Is there a three-jaw chuck? That was one of the standards, at
least with the Unimat SL-1000 (and I believe the DB-200).

And the Jacobs chuck will mount on either the headstock or the
tailstock, depending on what you want to do with it. (For that matter,
all the other chucks can be mounted on the tailstock as well.

And it all functions.

That helps.

For that light a machine, I could cobble all the others pretty quickly
and easily.

Given larger machines, yes.

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

According to Ed Huntress :

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
According to Ed Huntress :

[ ... ]

He had a lot of special cutting tools he made for it from piano wire,
which
he ground in the hard-drawn condition and used without heat treatment.

That does sound interesting. I wonder whether he had custom
toolposts as well to go with those. How large is the largest solid
piano wire? I know that many of the larger ones are wound instead of
solid.

IIRC, Bob made a four-position turret toolpost for his "production" work.
The largest standard music wire is 1/8". He used that, and slightly smaller
sizes for specific jobs.

O.K. That turret toolpost sounds like a nice addition to the
machine. Was it indexed?

BTW I've just remembered another "accessory" to the SL-1000. A
gear-driven accessory for the leadscrew, using a 45-degree
toothed gear which was tilted out of reach by a lever to stop
the feed. It picked up power from a long shaft across the front
of the machine, picking up from a tiny pulley which replaced the
nut which held the main pulley onto the spindle. I wound up
adding a bracket and a 28-VDC aircraft motor with a variable
power supply to give me variable speed feed, and feed which
could be used when milling too (since when set up for milling,
the take-off pulley was well out of reach of the feed drive.

We had many lunch discussions about his "manufacturing" operation. g I was
very interested in the piano wire myself. Bob said that cutting aluminum in
such small bites didn't give him any trouble with tool overheating, and the
piano wire was very easy to sharpen. Because it can be bent easily without
annealing, it makes good boring bars and internal threading tools.

It sounds as though he was either a close friend, or a
co-worker.

Thanks,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
According to Ed Huntress :

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
According to Ed Huntress :

[ ... ]

He had a lot of special cutting tools he made for it from piano wire,
which
he ground in the hard-drawn condition and used without heat treatment.

That does sound interesting. I wonder whether he had custom
toolposts as well to go with those. How large is the largest solid
piano wire? I know that many of the larger ones are wound instead of
solid.

IIRC, Bob made a four-position turret toolpost for his "production" work.
The largest standard music wire is 1/8". He used that, and slightly
smaller
sizes for specific jobs.

O.K. That turret toolpost sounds like a nice addition to the
machine. Was it indexed?

Sorry, Don. I last talked to Bob about this maybe 20 years ago. I don't
remember.

However, Bob is still kicking and writing (he must be 82 or so by now) and
you may find his email address somewhere by searching on "Bob Hatschek" via
Google. He's published a lot of articles about manufacturing and about model
planes. He's a friendly guy and I'm sure he'd tell you about it. Be sure
about the spelling of his last name.


BTW I've just remembered another "accessory" to the SL-1000. A
gear-driven accessory for the leadscrew, using a 45-degree
toothed gear which was tilted out of reach by a lever to stop
the feed. It picked up power from a long shaft across the front
of the machine, picking up from a tiny pulley which replaced the
nut which held the main pulley onto the spindle. I wound up
adding a bracket and a 28-VDC aircraft motor with a variable
power supply to give me variable speed feed, and feed which
could be used when milling too (since when set up for milling,
the take-off pulley was well out of reach of the feed drive.

We had many lunch discussions about his "manufacturing" operation. g I
was
very interested in the piano wire myself. Bob said that cutting aluminum
in
such small bites didn't give him any trouble with tool overheating, and
the
piano wire was very easy to sharpen. Because it can be bent easily
without
annealing, it makes good boring bars and internal threading tools.

It sounds as though he was either a close friend, or a
co-worker.

He was (is) a good friend, and he was one of my mentors when I was a young
editor at _American Machinist_. Another AM editor at the time, George
Schaffer, owned a Unimat. George was a serious amateur horologist and used
it to make replacement parts for antique clocks. Both of those guys are
mechanical engineers.

--
Ed Huntress

According to Ed Huntress :

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
According to Ed Huntress :

[ ... ]

IIRC, Bob made a four-position turret toolpost for his "production" work.
The largest standard music wire is 1/8". He used that, and slightly
smaller
sizes for specific jobs.

O.K. That turret toolpost sounds like a nice addition to the
machine. Was it indexed?

Sorry, Don. I last talked to Bob about this maybe 20 years ago. I don't
remember.

O.K I was just curious if you remembered.

However, Bob is still kicking and writing (he must be 82 or so by now) and
you may find his email address somewhere by searching on "Bob Hatschek" via
Google.

No need to bother him. It was just curiosity.

He's published a lot of articles about manufacturing and about model
planes. He's a friendly guy and I'm sure he'd tell you about it. Be sure
about the spelling of his last name.

[ ... ]

He was (is) a good friend, and he was one of my mentors when I was a young
editor at _American Machinist_. Another AM editor at the time, George
Schaffer, owned a Unimat. George was a serious amateur horologist and used
it to make replacement parts for antique clocks. Both of those guys are
mechanical engineers.

It is amazing what you can convince those little machines to do.
The latter fellow probably had the WW spindle so he could use
watchmaker's collets.

Thanks,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote:

(DoN. Nichols) fired this volley in
:


And how many here will understand "mathom"? :-)

Betcha the average Joe here is more literate than you think G.

LLoyd

Never could do Lord of the Rings.

Wes