Lathes

[V8 GRF]

Anyone know anything about 'hobby' lathes?

I quite like the look of the Emco Unimat 4 as it also can be used (with accessories) as a milling machine and tower drill.

See here any thoughts or experiences?

Recommendatiojns for others?

Thanks in anticipation chaps.

[V8 GRF]

Thanks for that response.
I'm looking to build a smallish model something about 1/8 or 1/12, I haven't decided ye, but no really big pieces so I was thinking I didn't need a large machine, but I'd be advised otherwise. That piece of kit I linked to in my post looked handy as space is at a bit of a premium and it looks like a 3 in 1 machine, compromises made as a result I'm sure but that's I'm asking advice. I'm looking to work with mild/stainless steel and soft alloys.

[V8 GRF]

dr_gn said:

A model of what? Steam engine?

No a TVR Griffith. (see my profile)

[V8 GRF]

dr_gn said:

V8 GRF said:

dr_gn said:

A model of what? Steam engine?

No a TVR Griffith. (see my profile)

I see.

Do you have any experience of machine tools and/or model making?

Plastic and whitemetal model making yes, Tamiya F1 plastic cars as a teenager then I moved on to bigger metal bodied models and built a 1/8th F40 for example. R/C model cars and a helicopter and then quite a few 1:43rds over the years.

I've made castings and used 3D modeling packages for nearly 20 years and exported CAD and SLA models to CNC machines. I intend to use a combination of 3D scanning and modeling and then export files to a '3D printer' and then take moulds off those pattern parts. Hopefully I've got access to the 3D Solidworks chassis file and intend to build a chassis first to get my hand in.

Machine tools, real experience ended at A level, but I've dabbled a bit every now and again working on farms and other workshops fixing machines and making parts but the priciples I guess are the same as they were at school?

I don't expect Rome to be built in a day so I'm quite happy to move at a steady/slow pace and learn as I go along. I'm setting myself a target of 2 years.

[V8 GRF]

dr_gn said:

To get an idea of what can be done with a Chinese Lathe and, from what he says, no experience, take a look at this guy:

http://www.mmrca.org/lance/sledframe.html

Look at his landing gear at date

1:8:2009

Wow impressive stuff, spurred me on actually I've bookmarked that page

[V8 GRF]

Quick silver said:

I have a 'Chester - Cobra 3 in 1", weighting in @ 45kg (over 7 stone).......it's similar to the Emco Unimat 4.

http://www.chesteruk.net/store/cobra_3in1.htm

Care to post any thoughts? Was it a good buy? What sort of stuff do you do with it?

I'm reasonably close to their showroom so could pop down and have a look if you think it was a good buy.

[V8 GRF]

Quick silver said:

Which showroom are you thinking of visiting?

The one near Chester.

[V8 GRF]

YHM