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Unimat lathe tools / bits . . .

Richard Tymko

Richard Tymko

Active Member
Hi everyone, I just bought a Unimat SL lathe and milling combo machine with 3-jaw chuck, tailstock jacobs chuck, dog-leg, saw holder arbor a few tool holders and am in the process of taking it all apart for cleaning and repacking. It was pretty grimy and dirty. I will be using it for silver and gold work. What I need to know is where in Calgary can I buy tools / bits / chucks / pin jaws for such a small machine. Being new to machining (like never done it before) I'm also not sure what all the stuff I got with it are for... A dog leg?

Thanks,

Richard
 
A dog leg is used to turn a round rod between two centers, it clamps onto the rod you want to turn and the little leg is stuck against one of the sides of a jaw of the chuck, to provide the force so that it can turn the rod.

As for places to buy some tooling in Calgary, I can't tell you that but someone from Calgary can tell you

Jon
 
You could try busybeetools for hss blanks, 1/4" or even 1/8" will work on your unimat. The smaller they are the easier to grind. If you want to spend $ and get your money's worth, Sherline sells chucks that will fit the unimat 12x1 threads. For lesss$ check out aliexpress, its mail order from China but I've had good luck with them. Arceurotrade and rdgtools, both in the uk, have some Unimat sized accessories. I don't know what you mean by "pin chuck" can you elaborate?

Cheers. John
 
IIRC, unimat machines are on the same scale as Sherline and veritas... Essentially jewellers tools, but sturdy enough for a small desktop 9x lathe as long as you're patient.

Good place for equipment and some tooling is Lee valley (hence veritas). Other than that, I've seen supplies on Amazon, but I haven't looked much locally.

Matt
 
I guess you could try KMS Tools, I know the one in Edmonton has cutting tools down to 1/4 inch.for lathe tools
 
Good luck at KMS in Edmonton. They just moved to a new location across the street to the north of Lee Valley Tools. They are still very disorganized and under stocked at the new location
 
Thanks for the input I was hoping not to have to grind my own tools, I'm not that experienced at that... Are they called tools because they go in your tool holder or are they called bits? Here is a picture of a pin jaw that I would like. ... Is the item in the attached picture called a jaw or a chuck? What is the difference? is there a Kms in Calgary?

1140-Pin_Jaws+chuck_web.jpg
 
'Tool bits' is a common term used for the cutters used in lathes in their most basic form that do the actual cutting. Tool holders usually mean a larger shank tool that carries some type of cutting tool, these days usually disposable carbide inserts. Depending on what kind of tool post configuration you have, you may be limited to regular square section tool bits.... maybe 1/8 or 3/16 or 1/4" square section. I'm only guessing that based on the smaller size of lathe, but you would have to show us more detail. Typically theses are high speed steel (HSS) black like a good drill bit alloy. Or they can be a steel shank with a braze-on carbide tip which comes pre-sharpened. Both are good, there is nothing wrong with HSS & in many hobbyist applications can be advantageous. You do need a simple bench grinder to make to re-sharpen & give you the ability to make different profiles (important!). Any metalworking tooling place will have these blanks but maybe a broader election on-line. Here is a link to KBC (internet order place). Type 'tool bit' in the search engine & that will get you going. http://www.kbctools.ca/

The picture you are showing is a chuck, but a special one called a pin chuck. If you visualize the body without the pins, that's essentially what the regular chuck looks like at this scale. But before you buy that one, recognize what its designed for according to Sherline. If you are intending this for general machining, it might not be suitable. "We designed our Pin Jaws specifically for laser engraving rings and other similar parts. These jaws are not designed for machining parts or other uses that require more than finger tight closing pressure to hold the part in the chuck".

Sherline makes nice stuff IMO & the fact that their spindle nose (hopefully) matches your lathe so you can utilize their 3-jaw, 4-jaw & other chucks is great because Unimats are kind of older vintage (60's-80's?) so I'd guess most owners are resorting to ebay scrounging. They were quite unique in their day, but I believe they also had design changes along the way with different models so you have to kind of be aware of that when it comes to buying accessories. Hopefully covered your question.

Personally (you may hate me for saying this) if money were no object & you wanted a lathe of this size, I would go straight to Sherline. They have the most comprehensive set of tooling accessories & it all interchanges with their other stuff like milling machine, rotary table etc. Unfortunately a bit spendy especially with the US$ exchange, but there are good deals on used ones too if you watch.
 
I should have also mentioned there are machining supply places in Calgary, more along the lines of KBC but a step up from BusyBee etc. more catering to mainstream machinist supply. The guys have mentioned some names in other posts, but off the top of my head: McDougalls, DMH, Thomas Skinner.... They have their pros & cons depending on what you are looking for, but anyway some more resources. After a while you start to recognize similar brand names offered among them & of course also compare on-line.
 
Well thanks everyone. I will finish the assembly of the Lathe which I took Apart to clean. Quick question. Is automotive grease a good grease to use for the repacking of the bearing or do I need something more special?

Thanks.
 
The Unimat uses an m12x1 spindle thread while the sherline is 3/4x16. At one time they did make an m12 threaded chuck. I don't know if they still do or not. One of the guys at protospace deals for sherline. If you want I can get you his contact info.
 
Thank you very much. I'll try and connect with him. It is interesting that you mentioned him and his his focus in cnc because I just bought a 5 axis cnc called pocket nc. I get it in January. You think I know little about lathes... Wait til I get my pocket nc! Thanks again..
 
>I think he is focusing on their CNC mills but can likely source the chucks
John, is he a Sherline dealer or something? Website? Reason I asked is I bought some Sherline items this past summer (direct). The shipping was uneventful because they offer USPS to Canada, but if there was a local guy, that wold be good to know in the future.
 
My understanding is that he has some sort of dealership arrangement with sherline. I don't know if he has an online store or whether there is any cost savings. He did have a booth at maker faire but I didn't have a chance to talk to him, my wife was bored. Best to just contact him.
 
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