Just a few thoughts? I would suggest that you do more research on the Unimat and consider it as an option.? I'm familiar with the C0 and I would not be inclined to put more time and money it its direction.? But if that works for you, fine.
Yes, the Unimat is somewhat collectible, but good deals can turn up at places like eBay, especially if you are willing to do some cleanup and tuneup and perhaps clean some rust off.
As one example, this is a photo of one I just sold about a month ago on eBay for $899 but it was in really nice condition, and it came with the 3-jaw and 4-jaw chucks and a ground tool bit set and even an SCR motor controller along with all the basics.
Some of the accessories do go for crazier prices, but most are not needed by most people.? Do you really need their "thread chaser" threading accessory?? Can't you usually just thread with a die if you are doing small diameter threads?
At another level, this sort of machine configured for milling is, in my opinion, good for only very, very light milling.? While not cheap, having a separate lathe and mill is almost always a better solution for machining in the long run.? If wanting to have "hobby size" machines, Sherline is an option, but can be costly.? But there must be opportunities for used ones.
Since you already have a C0 you already have some familiarity with the small "Chinese" lathes.? You have the smallest.? Some view these Chinese imports as somewhat of a "kit" if you want to make improvements to help their accuracy, prevent chatter, and so forth.? You might consider looking for a used C2 size mini-lathe (is that blasphemy on this list?) and a small Chinese mini-mill used.? They have been selling a lot of these for a long time now in many variations and there must be many languishing around not being used.
Finally, if your milling needs are VERY minimal, you could consider rigging up a milling setup on your C0, not with a column, but with an angle and some sort of table with the milling cutter in the headstock.? This has been done with many lathes, such as even the old Atlas (Sears Craftsman) lathes as a "milling attachment."? It is about the worst way to go but can work for a modest amount of small and light machining.
Charles E. "Chuck" Kinzer
