I was aware that they were sold, but I'd never seen a Unimat except in photographs until fairly recently. I first SAW an actual Unimat about 2018 or 19, friend of mine had 4 of them for sale as a group, for $1600, was wasn't willing to sell just one. Not that I could have afforded even the $400, at the time. ;) But I saw them in the back of his van, at the Southwest Ironworks Wood and Metalworker's Swapmeet and Faire. First laid hands on one in December of 2021, I guess it was.?

The rails I made for my SL were about as long as the ones in the photo at Tony's Lathes site, but I didn't like the ends sticking out and just hanging in the air. That was 300mm length 12mm linear guide rod. So I shortened them to stock length for the standard ways. but I was in the mini-lathe crowd for more than a decade, and had wanted to modify my HF 7x10 quite a bit. Didn't actually do much with it, as I found a Atlas TH42, which is about double the capacity of the 7x10. And while the 7x10 was only around 115lbs, the 10x24 TH42 was closer to 270lbs. That is good for some things, but it's not very portable! ;) Extended way bars will reduce the portability a bit, but it won't be that much heavier even with the bed extension. A stock machine without a lot of accessories, and in the original box, weighs about 25lbs. I would not have cut down a bed to do this project, but I knew about a couple of folks who had, and one was willing to sell me his remnant for a reasonable cost.??

Had to do yardwork this morning, first thing, but working on the shop in on the calendar now that the grass is a bit shorter. It's been raining off and on the past couple of weeks, and the grass was getting rather tall, and we're expecting more rain this afternoon or evening... And temps in the 90's, so didn't want to wait on it.?

Bill in OKC