Unimat Lathe

[tigercasual]

Hey Guys,

I'm looking for a small lathe to use for stem-work. Has anyone out there used a Unimat? Any comparisons to the Taig?

Cheers,
TC

[potholer]

tigercasual

which unimat lathe?

if it is the 6 in 1, i have never read or heard a good word said about it

try this for more information
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=378093

regards
dave

[tigercasual]

I'm trying to find out about Unimat lathes in general. With that, I'm also trying to figure out if there are any lathes less expensive than, say a Taig, for stem work. It appears to me that to get into a Taig- by the time you get everything you need, you're looking at around six-hundred dollars.

I need a small metal lathe to do stem work, but I'm trying to do it in a "cost effective" manner, considering that I intend on buying a bigger metal lather down the road.

Cheers,
TC

[smokindawg]

If your thinking of buying a bigger metal lathe later, then save your $$ and hold off on buying anything small. The bigger lathe will do all you want, including stem work and once you have the bigger one, you'll probably not use the smaller one anyway. If you hold off, the money you would have spent on the smaller lathe can go toward tooling for the bigger lathe anyway.

Least that's what I found, after spending money on the smaller lathe then purchasing the bigger.

[KurtHuhn]

Yeah, don't waste your time with a 6x10 or 7x12 lathe. I haven't heard or read a single good thing about them. About the best praise I've heard was that, after setup, tweaks, modifications, and adjustments, they work fine. What a glowing endorsement...

For the same money you'll spend on one of those, you can usually find a good piece of old iron from South Bend, Hardinge, Atlas, etc. You need to be patient and shop around, but they can be found. Sometimes even with a bunch of tooling.

Failing that, and if you don't think you'll want a bigger metal lathe, the Taig or Sherline are really the way to go (i.e. you'll be using this for stems and small projects). Both are high quality, precision machines. And both will serve you for years to come, rather than pissing you off and eventually getting sold at a loss to some other sucker.

[tigercasual]

Yes... I need a lathe for stem work- just to make my life easier. It looks like Taig is the way to go.

Cheers,
TC