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My new toy has arrived - an Emco Unimat SL lathe ... first impressions are that despite it being small and light, it whizzes all over the Hobbyking 6-in-1/CoolTool Unimat from a great height - everything is taut, smooth & square :y:y


It arrived in a plywood & MDF crate...





First thing to reveal itself was a slightly untidy but perfectly readable manual:




... lots of newspaper ...

... Bubblewrap ...






Motor, bracket & pulley assembly - note 2-pin mains plug:






Chunky upright for milling/drilling setup:






Excellent bit of crate making





Finally unpacked + motor, 3-way chuck & toolpost fitted ... some useful extras there - vice (if I do want to try some milling), backplate, tools (possibly the original ones), tailstock chuck, 4-way independent chuck, 2 sets of spare belts, collet chuck (+ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10mm collets, + a 1/8" collet) wasn't something I was looking for as they're fiddly & inflexible - but they will allow for much bigger bits than the standard tailstock chuck; there were also a bunch of BA taps & dies too, no real use for me so I've already moved them on

nice looking piece of kit looks well made in an old fashioned sort of way 'they dont make them like they used to' as my dad would say

tamiya wrote:

nice looking piece of kit looks well made in an old fashioned sort of way 'they dont make them like they used to' as my dad would say

They didn't really change too much from the beginning of the 1950's to 1977 when the Unimat 3 was introduced ... this one is the later "light" Zamak variety, the motor dates it to somewhere between 1968 + 1974 ...

looks very well made i love anything old school like that

I also had a quick go at turning a bit of 14mm aluminium bar ... lots of swarf later I'd at least tried out facing, turning down & a taper (I also broke the edges with wet & dry & gave it a quick tickle with Autosol) ... the pimple on the end shows the 6mm shank cutters I already had just need a tiny bit of shimming upwards.

Carving up styrene also seems to go a lot better - most of the prep work went as well as it did with the Hobbyking 6in1, but I wouldn't have even tried to recreate the raised lip like this on it:

Looks like you will be a handy man to know

HI!... See that's what I told u to get after I saw the plastic junk you bought. UNI-MAT is 100 times better. I'm looking at one currently but it's about 4 times bigger than that. I need it to do larger stuff in my garage. A buddy of mine has that exact machine u just bought. Still looks new after 44 years. lol

Non-existant user wrote:

HI!... See that's what I told u to get after I saw the plastic junk you bought. UNI-MAT is 100 times better. I'm looking at one currently but it's about 4 times bigger than that. I need it to do larger stuff in my garage. A buddy of mine has that exact machine u just bought. Still looks new after 44 years. lol

There are many phrases that cover it, "You get what you pay for", "buy cheap, buy twice", "yes, we have no bananas" and so on...

Very cool I want one