As a hobbyist and a collector, I like to make wood boxes... DH was fighting me when I was trying to buy a bone the other day to make a tiny bone box... I would really like to make a Unimat cabinet though, it seems sad to have it covered up in that plywood box lid!

I generally work in brass; I still want to make a brass bed, and was looking at that last night, a tiny miniature threaded oil can, wicker buggy wheels... you know totally useless stuff in 1/12th scale that captures my imagination and makes me wonder if I can make it.? The oil can reminds me of my Dad, he was a mechanic and it instantly reminds me of him working on cars for friends - knowing how easily I can disassemble something and sometimes it doesn't work after I re-assemble, I have great respect for my Dad's skills.? But I don't want to make just an oil can, I want to make one that is threaded, and the tip is tapered inside and hollowed so oil can actually be used out of the can... yes, totally useless stuff!

Useless, except it brings me joy, knowing that I made it and why it is important to me.

For the useful stuff, I would love to make other tooling for my lathe, but I think a larger lathe is infinitely more practical.

Somewhere in the archives of this group there was a post about making a brass bed and a website, so I will be searching for it next.? I am thankful that the group decided to archive the yahoo messages and transitioned to groups.io as everything would have been lost in the group's history at Yahoo.

Tamra

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Hi all,

I do clock repair.? One of my first unimat projects was an arbor ( shaft) for a clock after a friend broke it trying to repair it.? I also made him a winding key for a key wind watch.? I moved up to a unimat 3, and used it to make a pin and bushing for pressing wrist pins out of a Renault 4 car engine.? I made a bushing for the clutch linkage for a 1954 MG and an adjuster part for the clutch on a 1981 ford pickup.? I made parts to convert the original unimat into a mainspring winding machine, but later used my big lathe and mill to convert those parts to fit an old jewelers lathe that had a larger swing.? I have bought broken or incomplete steam engines on ebay and made parts to make them run again.?? My most recent part was a spacer for the blade guard on a 1930's Sears band saw.? In short, almost anything with small machined parts can be helped with these machines.

Chuck

I used to be massively into RC cars many years ago. I still have them but ive not run them for probably over 10 years!

I made a few parts back then, ive made lots of other projects over the years too, accessories, pens, knives, a cigarette lighter and even a cannon! ive done quite a lot of gunsmithing too. But I think ive always been a bit spoiled having had a fully equipped workshop ever since I was just a teen.

Making something on my tiny Unimat and not having a huge selection of tools is a different challenge for me. But one ive been looking to get stuck into for a while.?

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Hello Matt:

The "biggest" project for my Unimat were these modified screws for Model RR turnout motors:

What I started with was a 1/4-20 x 0.5" hex screw. First I drilled the thread out to 1/8" up to the hex head. Then I drilled through the head at 0.060". The tough part was cross drilling the head for a 4-40 tapped hole. Tapping the interrupted hole broke a few taps. Did I mention I made 75 of these motors.

So the Unimat was great at doing the small work on this special part.

Good luck, Carl.

Usually I build marine steam engines and small parts for model boats but since that’s not for you, other items I’ve made are pens, rc car suspension systems (mini “gas” and spring pistons) mini hydraulics, rc nitro engine repairs (piston liners and pistons them self’s, headstock ?for water cooling etc) roller bender Dias for small stock and spare parts for my unimat,?
I've also repaired the toilet flush system with a part on the lathe and countless little odds and ends around the house that was easy to make then waste cash on.

although you have said you don’t want to build a steam engine, and given the boiler needed I do understand that maybe a bit to much but other engines you can build are hot air engines, (sterling etc) very simple projects and just require a candle as fuel, or if your a smoker try a making a lighter! I’ve seen some nice ones machines on lathes on YouTube, might try one myself at some point if I get bored.

let us know what you come up with..
good luck!

A ball turning attachment might be a nice project. I have made accessories before but I've always cheated and used my bigger lathes. I was thinking a small model project but it's got to be something that excites me otherwise I lack the motivation!?

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I was just wondering, what do you guys actually make using your Unimat machines?

I am more of a collector myself but I really should put them to use. (I?have a Unimat SL, Emco 3 and an Emco 3 milling machine.)?

Now my country, like many others is on lock down. I've been looking for a small project I can complete in my home. Any suggestions?

PS. Im not interested in steam engines. ?

I viewed the sample and agree it looks good. ?A few years ago I purchased a two disk set of ?Model Engineers Workshop scans from EBay and some were very clear and some were a little fuzzy. That is why I asked the question.
Dick

The website offers a sample issue. It looks pretty good to me.

https://chessieshop.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=127_130&products_id=3291

What is the quality of these scans? ?I have seen some scanned material (from other sources) that was not that great. (Some were quite fuzzy).
Not being critical here- just asking.

Dick

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Oh wow!

Hi Alfred,
That is nice work you do on your model trains.
Can you suggest a good book or two on model train scratch building? It looks like an interesting hobby.
Dick

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The insides of this motor is scary, note to self, don't look at the inside of my motor!

I'm following, just in case I get brave and discover a mess.

Tamra