The Unimat PC may be a nice small CNC lathe; any experiences?
Unimat, Sherline, and Taig are “micro lathes” in that the swing over the bed is less than 5 inches, and the bed is about a foot long. Sherline and Taig are made in the US, and Unimat is made in Austria (and hence uses metric threads, e.g. in the spindle thread, which may be a pain to US buyers). Sherline and Taig both use 3/4 inch x 16 threads in the spindle and can thus interchange accessories. The Taig cannot cut threads, while the Sherline and Unimat can (with accessories). Sherline and Unimat sell a milling add-on. The Taigs come in unbundled kit form where you have to buy everything; they claim an overall accuracy of .0004 inch and have excellent parts and service, and also sell a watchmaking headstock. Taig is the cheapest at about $250 to get started, about $450 for Sherline, and Unimat a bit less than Sherline. Unimat seems to charge quite a bit more than normal for accessories. Just keep in mind that these are not as rigid or powerful as full-sized lathes. Harbor Freight sells
