tools, materials & knowledge for model makers
The Emco Unimat motor failure for the second time, this one was slightly different in that I switched the motor on and the house earth leak detector tripped. The first time the motor failed it was because the brushes had just worn out. A simple resistance measurement between the earth and neutral shows 50kOhm. This … Read more
My wood turning technique will horrify the professional and amateur wood turners alike. However, having never had a lesson and starting with an Emco Unimat 3 when I was 11 years old I’ve developed a style where I mix metal turning and wood turning techniques. The first stage for me is to screw the roughly … Read more
Repairing a failed Unimat 3 Motor. The weakness with the original Unimat 3 was the motor. It was designed to have a continuous rating of just 8 to 10 minutes and would get very very hot – too hot to touch if not careful. The motor on my Unimat 3 packed up after 33 years … Read more
A review of the Unimat 3 Circular Saw. The Emco Unimat 3 had a great circular saw attachment. The real benefit of this was the precision with which you can strip and machine wood for model making purposes. The only downside is the Unimat 3 motor is a tad underpowered for this type of work … Read more
I really want a small pillar drill that is available for use on a regular basis, hence the Unimat 3 pillar drill. I have a Unimat 3 lathe/mill, but whenever I want to use it as a drill it is normally configured wrong and so lots of messing around. At this point I normally resort … Read more
I’ve been using this Emco Unimat 3 lathe for the past 3 decades (and counting…) and thought it was about time I reviewed it. I learnt to turn on this lathe and all those years on it is still in use on a very regular basis to machine very small parts. It originally had a … Read more