My New Toy!!

[Crimson Sky]

My father-in-law Peter who is one of the coolest guys I know, decided to get rid of some stuff at his home. He is a tinkerer and gun enthusiast, and has accumulated some very sweet tools over the years. I have been dreaming of the Unimat for 25 years, and BAM!--he just happens to have one in mint condition, and he gives it to me. How cool is that?

I had first heard of these precision made German machines when I was into making stop-motion animations in highschool. I would drool over the pics of the pros using these this gem to create amazing machined parts for armatures and miniature models. They have been around since the 50's, and according to the original receipt (Peter saves everything) he purchased this one in 1970. He had also drooled over it as a younger man, never able to afford it until years later. Life is strange and beautiful.

Here's what the Unimat SL1000 does:

• It's a precision metal lathe
• It's a jewelers quality drill press
• It's a vertical milling machine
• It's a hand drill
• It's a scroll saw
• It's a table saw
• It's a gear cutter
• It's a flexible shaft rotary tool
• It's a grinder, buffer & polisher

You can still get parts and accessories for it, although its quite expensive for some of them. It's still the #1 tool for model makers and miniature machinists. I cant wait to make stuff with it!!

[simon275]

Wow what a great tool. Having a lathe is so sweet. You know what this means Crimson. We expected are more intricate mods from now on.

[Crimson Sky]

Oh, great. But I just wanna look at it for a while...

[Zephik]

Grab a lawn chair, get a beer or two and just sit there. You'll probably enjoy that more than Smallville.

On another note, you know what? That color kicks ass!

[d_stilgar]

Is there anywhere that has pics of stuff that it can make?

[xmastree]

That really is lovely.

• It's a flexible shaft rotary tool

Hmm... you mean it's the mother of all Dremels?

[Bucko]

That is sweet! I always love quality tools.
*tries not to be jealous*

[Crimson Sky]

That really is lovely.


Hmm... you mean it's the mother of all Dremels?

I have seen the rotary attachment for sale on ebay. unfortunatly they are probably not very reliable only because of their age--new technology has made the flexible shaft attachments much stronger in recent years. The older ones, if you get a kink in them while working you can break it easily. It must have been cool back in the day though.

[xmastree]

Can't you get a modern shaft and adapt it to fit that? Think of the torque...

[Crimson Sky]

Yeah I actually have a flexshaft from a delta drill press that would work, I would just attach it with the jacobs chuck to the Unimat. I suppose if all my other flexshaft tools failed I could use it in a pinch.