I have been sifting through the Sherline offerings out of West Virginia, and trying to piece together all the threads of the Enco/Unimat story.

It seems that until last year all but one of the Unimat models were of Chicom provenance. This year they are all painted PRC Flag Red and sickle and star yellow.

I need a bench top unit for working on cartridge cases (e.g. converting Mauser 8x57 to M/S 8x56, M/S 9x56 and also to M/S 9.5x56/57. Not every customer will be able to afford Horneber brass with RWS or Lapua bullets.

I am asking for feedback as to likes/dislikes about the various brands, models and accessories.

I will also need a fine toothed saw blade attachment for cutting mass quantities of cases without any drama; I would prefer a carbide blade, but could live with good quality HSS blades. An example of use is taking 2,000 .223 cartridge cases, cleaning them ultrasonically, uniforming the primer pockets and de-burring the primer flash hole. After running the cases through the form/trim die I can cut the case lengths close to finished form, anneal them all and doing a simple fine trim before segregating by weight; all this as a prelude toward loading the brass with a dollop of powder followed by a Sierra .308 caliber, 240 grain Match King. Then you can call it the Redding .221/300 (while your brain says "300 whisper).

Of course, I will use this to make small unobtanium parts (milling sight inserts and peep sights come to mind).

I also wish to experiment with making some of todays relatively "unyielding" bullets into more of a bore-rider design (hopefully friction, heat and stress can be reduced while accuracy is at least maintained, and hopefully, improved. This would have important applications in double rifle feeding. Slow motion footage of a Swift A-Frame, or especially an early model Barnes (prior to the great "ring tail revelation") looked like a Marlon Brando moving through the alimentary canal of a medium sized python - lots of vibration and whipping around of the python/barrel.

Thoughts, experiences, recommendations of models as well as book recommendations are all welcome.

If I can hold 0.001" to 0.002", that would be swell (I do not drink coffee early in the day).

Thank you! I will post this also in the gunsmithing section.

This is what you need http://www.mini-lathe.com/mini_lathe/sieg/sieg.htm
I've seen them and personally used one for a little work on a rear sight set-up, they're great for the money and solidly built, they also have a lathe-mill combo.

Thanks for that lead!!

I get most of my machine tooling at Little Machine Shop, I have the Homier from Harbor Freight, perfect mini mill with upgrades from LMS.

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/