Anyone own and use one of these?

Seems like it would be a good machine for small jobs, which is all I would use it for.

Manufactured in Austria, and although no longer made, it seems that with decent maintenance, they will run forever.

There also seems to be a great aftermarket for virtually all parts and accessories, which makes maintenance easy.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

I had one for years and they are fine for very small parts bit you quickly need a larger one. Once you start using it, you will want to do bigger jobs. I do not recommend it unless you are sure you want to stay with pistols. . Mine you had to hand crank the cross slide in both axes. It is also a little drill press and milling machine.

I had one and used it for a long time, was great for small parts and screws as I had the screw cutting adapter as well. But some unknown sickness came over me and I let it get away. Wish I had it back.

I had mine doing gunsmithing in my dorm room at WVU. Try that now and you would be kicked out.

I had a Unimat SL with the power feed and it just wasn't enough lathe to do most projects. I found a fellow in San Antonio that bought truck load of the Chinese small lathes and he wanted the power feed model I had. The 7X12 is a much better choice and you can do barrel threading and chambering on it. I used this 7X12 model to fit a new barrel to my mini Mauser in 204 Ruger.. I will post a picture of my lathe with all of the extras that I carry with me in the motorhome as soon as I find the pictures.

I have one like new with extra parts and motor. Can post/send pictures.
If interested let me know.

There's one and a bunch of parts
listed on ebay now.

George

EMCO is a fantastic company.

Exceptional after sales service.

Have not used this one but have two of their machines here in our workshop.

An EMCOMAT 15D and EMCOTURN E25.

The E25 we got not long ago to replace an old one we had.

Exceeding accurate CNC lathe.

The 15D we have had for over 30 years, and never had a single problem with it.

We use it for all our gunsmithing work.

Right now we are in the workshop.

I am making .475 caliber bullets - just finished a run of 600 grain bullets and starting on a run of 500 grains.

A friend is working on 15D threading a barrel for a silencer.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
Anyone own and use one of these?

I still have one I bought at a gun show in Raleigh in the late 80s. The 3-jaw chuck is ok, sometime I should get collets or a 4-jaw chuck. It is kind of small but good for small stuff. The spindle will pass a 6mm rod but not a 1/4".

Most of the time these days I use a South Bend Heavy 10 that I got at an auction in Woodbury CT (an estate sale, owner was said to have been a participant in the Manhattan Project).

Mike,

If you are really interested in a small lathe, and wish to do a lot of hobby work on it, my suggestion is to look for something bigger.

We bought a small one years ago to make bullets on.

It was totally useless, as no two bullets came out the same size.

Bear in mind that we need accuracy to several places of decimal.

Then we bought a bigger table top model used in colleges.

It was better, but not much.

I then tried making bullets on our 15D lathe.

It worked to a certain extent, but was extremely slow.

We then decided to go the whole hop and get a CNC lathe.

Of course this is not what you want, but I am just telling you of our experiences.

The current one we have can be programmed, and hold, to 4 places of decimal.

The previous model would hold to 3.

Thanks to all for the good information.

Saeed and dpcd - I hear you loud and clear on wanting a bigger lathe. If I had the free space, I would do it.

But I don't think I'll want to do large or volume work.

The Unimat SL 1000 spindle holds run out to a maximum of one half thousandth of an inch (0.0005"), which is more than good enough for me.

With its convertible headstock and the correct accessories, it can be used as a lathe, drill press, milling machine, table saw, disc sander, bench grinder, surface grinder and jigsaw! All for light work, of course.

I would rather it be just a bit bigger, but for what it is, it's unique in the market.

I've decided I'm going to buy one.

Thanks, again, for all the input.