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W-OT: anyone have a Sherline.or Unimat.3/4 lathe

Unimat 3:
Casting size: 60mm long x 58mm wide (at bed rails, it's slightly tapered) x 68.35mm high (from flat rail). Headstock spindle 105mm LOA without pulley on.
 
I have a Sherline 4400 but I'm nowhere near it at the moment. I'll have to measure it. But, doesn't the Sherline website have a lot of details? I think they do but can't check right now.

What exactly are you planning?
 
Many thanks 1944.

I bought a Unimat 3 years ago. I thought it in my interests to part it out, as I was dispensing with loads of excess.baggage. Sold everything but the bed casting. And it's been staring at me ... The first lathe I ever planned on buying, quite naturally, as it was advertised everywhere, was a Sherline. But then in the midst of the planning stage they raised the price 15$. The nerve! This was around 1995. So, as is always the case, I continued researching, I wouldn't have any of the shenanigans. And it's kind of a genetic thing as my brother is exactly the same way :). I owned 22 lathes at one point! Now it's about 6 or 7. Really all.partials except for one. And if all goes well I'll have an 8", no typo, Southbend tomorrow (most already know this, but it's similar to the Boxford sold in the UK and Australia).

I still have a hankering for a complete U3. And even a Sherline. So ... I'll buy raw stock, 6061 for now, maybe eventually cast iron, and build a lathe around that stupid bed.

I can't believe I parted out pieces of my Prazi SD-300, but was lucky enough to get a few.things back very reasonably. Still have a ways to.go. I am very interested in experimental machines, in fact one day not too far away I'll build a small lathe totally from raw stock. Tricks would have to be.employed to get everything aligned.properly, as I want to be able to do it with only the.help of a drill press, or a small vertical mill acting as one. Somewhere in my stash I have photos of a small commercial vertical mill that uses.round stock and aluminum plate plus a Sherline headstock. Nothing quite lights my fire as "homemade" machinery.

I had been planning to cast the parts for the reborn Unimat, but doing a bit of reading on metallurgy, it may not pan out as I think, as commercial stock is extruded, and hardened and stretched, etc. to produce a stable material that won't change much after it's machined.

And if it turns out I can't actually.make a headstock somehow, I can just buy a Sherline headstock and build an adapter.for.the.bed.
 
How much of the U3 do you still have - do you have the carriage and leadscrew or just the casting? I have a CAD drawing of the U3 bed cross-section showing the mandrel centre height/offset from the bed rails if you need it.
As for building from scratch, I have a book I got when I was in high school called 'Building a Small Lathe' by LC Mason. Uses just cold rolled steel bar stock for pretty much everything but you need a larger lathe for some of it.
There's also the well-known Gingery lathe, built from first principles.
There is a great site https://www.homemadetools.net/ which may help. I found this referenced off a Hackaday article last week showing a (mostly) homebuilt milling machine.

For inspiration just look at this metal lathe made in a POW camp during WWII: http://www.lathes.co.uk/bradley-pow-lathe/
 
Acquainted with the pow lathe and Gingery (yes my research did include the (then unlikely) possibility of building a lathe! Although I never read the Mason book, I'm, uh, of the persuasion DG got many of his ideas from it. But either is a exceptional introduction to machine construction and machining principles. I lost, then found, then lost again my original orange copy of the Metal Lathe and my original Craftsman 3/8" ratchet, gifted to me in 1989. I really never lose anything, and those 2 items had a lot of sentimental value. Wherever they are I hope they're happy together.
 
tipc said:
Mr. Kearny and Trecker owns a Sherline! That's a hoot. What have you, or what would you like to use it for?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why you call me that but it's one heck of a honor to me (though most people probably have no idea). I've ran and worked on quite a few K&Ts but sure would like to have one at home. For now I'll be content with my Hurco though. :)

I occasionally need to make random small turned parts for various things. The most notable thing I've made in recent years is cribbage pegs.
 
You've expressed your liking for KT lathes in the past. And given the stoutness of such lathes, chances are most operators would laugh at so small a lathe as a Sherline. I'm not saying that makes sense, each lathe has it's place. It's just the attitude I've encountered in the past. Absolutely no offense intended.

Edit: ok I must be thinking of a different manufacturer. KT didn't seem to have made many, if any, lathes. I guess I'm thinking along the.lines of Lodge and Shipley and.others. Not very large lathes in terms of.turning capacity, but extremely stout and massive looking. Oi.
 
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I'm not even sure if I ever saw a K&T lathe. Plenty of others though. Some wouldn't fit on my property in any way. :)
 
I'll find photos of the types of lathes I was talking about.

Ugh, "big" lathes and hernias don't play well. I'm now the suspicious owner of a vintage 1932 Southbend lathe. Not a complete set of change gears, not a formal jackshaft. Not in terrible shape, used though. It's the only working more or less complete lathe I have at the moment. But oh what a joy it will be taring it all down, cleaning, and painting. Would be grand if I could have the bed resurfaced cheaply.
 
If you have access to a 3D printer, you're in luck! South Bend Lathe Gears https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3172973
They ought to work fine for occasional use, PET is apparently a good filament choice as it is oil resistant.
I thought to check Thingiverse for your situation as I have a Myford ML7 (with a fair set of change gears mind you) and there are ones there for that (not that I have printed any).
 
I don't know if I'd say "usually", but it's a good choice. No idea if it can be 3D printed though.
 
Yes, and nylon and graphite impregnated material as well. Thingiverse is a print-it-yourself site mostly for hobbyists, tinkerers, home shop rather than commercial. Not sure if delrin is available as a filament, I've never looked.
You could set up a headstock dividing head (my dad and I made one from an IBM worm gear gearbox long ago for our Takang TK101) and cut your own, but who's got time to do that for a full set of potentially little-use gears these days?
 
I need 16tpi for sure that's all I know. And myriads of other thread pitches. I may look into that, thanks for the suggestion. I would like to cut my own ... I have a small mill and a headstock with graduations that might be small enough, eh kind of doubt it though.

My Edelstaal Machinex 5 needs chucks, I won a rinky dink 4 jaw this week, but it took over 2 years. It has a 1" x 16tpi nose thread, and I have a suitable tap, in the midst of figuring out how to mount it in a ts with a.mt1, I found the 4 jaw. I had though I'd just machine a sleeve to grasp the tap, and replace the ts ram altogether. An awkward arrangement, but doable I suppose.
 
KC9UDX said:
I don't know if I'd say "usually", but it's a good choice. No idea if it can be 3D printed though.
Click to expand...

My milling machine is a gutted Emco F1. It had an.antiquated (or should I say.vintage, more below) cnc console. It also has metric ball screws. It's sitting on my garage floor currently. Omword the crappola on my bucket list! But with a modern cnc retrofit I imagine the profile for plastic gears could be milled in aluminum without too much ado. Then there's the injection molding ...

Can't say what chip my console had, they came with either a 6502 or an 8088. Truly a vintage computer in it's own right. Back on topic.
 
Do you *need* plastic gears?

What was wrong with the original control? Depending on its age, it is likely either a 68xx or x86. I haven't met a CNC yet that I couldn't coax to do anything 2½ dimensional.
 
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