That's a roughly 3/4HP motor, which I think a bit much for the Unimat. My South Bend Heavy 10L shipped from the factory with a 3/4HP motor. It's about a thousand pounds of toolroom lathe. I suspect that launching the chuck would be rather traumatic even if it isn't as big as the ones SB uses. :) I'm not sure the ways to prevent that on a SB lathe like mine would work on an SL, but fitting a smaller motor might make it less likely.?
Looks like a well thought-out layout, and I suppose it if does what you want it to do, and you know not to stop it like that, is should work fine for you. Currently, my smallest lathe is a Harbor Freight 93212 7x10 mini-lathe, about a hundred pounds worth of lathe. I am trying to work a? deal to get a Unimat SL myself. I know that techniques that work on small lathes will work on a larger one, where the reverse is not necessarily true. Though with that motor, you can probably use carbide tooling, I'm thinking the lathe itself is pretty small, and light weight. That might be a problem with continued use.?
I'd be interested in more of your experience, so please keep posting!
Bill in OKC
Bill in OKC too