Mini Lathe suggestions

[58 Impala]

I have been thinking about purchasing a mini lathe to make model car parts. I've never used one, so any suggestions on a good lathe for a beginner. 

And also not too expensive the would require selling a kidney. Thanks.

[peteski]

Price and quality go together.  Sherline to me  is a prefect balance of good quality and reasonable price.

Also, if you were to search the forum ,there are multiple threads with your type of question. Here are couple. I suggest reading the info already posted to reduce duplicity.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

42 minutes ago, peteski said:

Price and quality go together...

Truer words were never spoken.

Which means stay away from the really cheap plastic Chinese junk.

Most of them are toys, and are incapable of delivering any kind of consistent accuracy.

I'd owned a full-size lathe and mill for my business since 1995, but when I decided to get into miniature machining I started with a used but excellent late '60s Unimat, and in early 2024 added a used Sherline that came with a bunch of tooling for an incredible price, though the machine does seem to have been used by a chimp at one point.

Deals are out there on excellent used equipment if you have patience, but be prepared to spend at least $500 and up today to get something you can actually make parts with.

If you're not already familiar with machine work terms and procedures, you'd be ahead of the game if you did some reading on machine work in general and miniature machine work in particular, so you'll have an idea of what the various machining operations entail and what additional parts and tooling you'll need besides just the basic machine.

Edited July 19 by Ace-Garageguy

[Bugatti Fan]

Sher!ine comes to mind as being a really well built miniature lathe, currently in production and with a good range of accessories. American manufactured.

Proxxon also makes a very high quality miniature lathe and accessories also currently in production. They also make many other miniature power tools for model making. Austrian manufactured.

Unimat. Sadly stopped production of their excellent little machines and huge range of accessories for the.a few years back. At one time regarded as a benchmark miniature machine tool, made in Austria. Not known why they ceased production, but not too difficult to obtain their machines and accessories on the second hand market. I have a Unimat 4 that I bought new some time ago and can attest that it is a fine little machine.

Cowells.  A British made miniature machine that is regarded as the Rolls Royce of miniature machines by many with a price to reflect the very high quality.

There are a number of other miniature lathes from less we!l known that have been available over the years that crop up second hand now and again. Peatol and Toyo are two names that I can remember having seen in the past.

Important.  One has to remember that lathes are generally sold as a basic machine and one needs to buy accessories on as well as the machine to do certain different things on it. So one will have to consider what it will be used for and if any accessories at extra cost needs to be considered.

Edited July 19 by Bugatti Fan

[Bainford]

Have a look at Taig lathes, too. Often cheaper than the Sherlines and Unimats, but a full range of accessories available, including milling attachments, and they are more than capable of the work done in scale modelling. They are US made, and there is good online community support, as well. 

[Straightliner59]

I have a Sherine lathe and one of their milling machines. They're more than suited for what I do, and there are members of this forum who do amazing work, on them. 

[Bugatti Fan]

Not heard of the Taig brand over here in England Trevor.   

Will have to look at their website as it sounds like another capable little machine.

[bobss396]

I have looked into lathes, agree that Sherline would be best for me.

I'm holding off on buying one...it would engulf my summer quite easily. 

[Bugatti Fan]

Looked up the Taig machines and discovered that they were (are) sold as Peatol in the UK, in which case I have heard of them. I believe that they were marketed as quite basic machines without a motor that needed to be sourced elsewhere. In fact I think that I did see them at the Model Engineering Exhibition a number of years back, so they have been around for quite some time now.

[Bainford]

6 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

Looked up the Taig machines and discovered that they were (are) sold as Peatol in the UK, in which case I have heard of them. I believe that they were marketed as quite basic machines without a motor that needed to be sourced elsewhere. In fact I think that I did see them at the Model Engineering Exhibition a number of years back, so they have been around for quite some time now.

Interesting about the Peatol brand.

Unfortunately the Taig website, which looks good and is well stocked with accessories, is difficult to discern the differences between the various lathe kits. There are many different 'kit' options, and is a bit weak on descriptions, making decisions difficult, but they do sell complete kits that include chucks and a motor. When I started writing this reply, I was going to tell you to refer to the website of the Canadian distributor, Lee Valley Tools, but I see they no longer deal in Taigs. This is a shame, as their website laid out the various options and accessories in a non-ambiguous way. I plan on buying a lathe myself in the next couple years, as soon as I sell enough of my stash to fund the purchase, and spent the last hour on the Taig site, but I came away with more questions than answers.

[Bugatti Fan]

Trevor, not knowing if you will be new to machining or not when ready to go ahead, I would suggest that you obtain a copy of Joe Martin's book about miniature machining. It will be on the Sherline website.

Having been in engineering all my life I still found the book to be fascinating, showing many examples of miniature engineering work.

[Bainford]

Cheers Noel. I have worked in and around machine shops all my life, though my actual operating experience is limited to very basic turning or mill work (my trade is Mechanical Fitter, currently employed as a Mechanical Technologist with the Canadian branch of a UK engineering firm). Thanks much for the recommendation on the book. I will look into that, for sure.

Edited Tuesday at 06:04 PM by Bainford

[bill-e-boy]

I have a Emco Unimat 3 that I got second hand a while ago. It was used but came as a kit with the drill/mill attachment and a whole heap of additional stuff that made the deal worthwhile. I di spend some time cleaning it up and fitting new headstock bearings and setting up a new workstation for it.

I am real happy with it and in reality I think it is a step up from the Proxon and may even nudge ahead of the Sherline but unfortunately the Emco brand is no longer so you can only get second hand. A lot of the DNA from Unimat 3 can be found in the likes of the small Sieg lathes (and copies) which are another avenue to look at

 

[Bugatti Fan]

It would be interesting to find out why the Unimats stopped production. 

At one time they appeared to be the go to miniature machines here in England, and had links with the late Gerald Wingrove. He wrote a book named Unimat Lathe Projects. I used the drawings in it to make a four way tool post for my machine that saves me a lot of time whilst using it.

My particular machine is a Unimat 4, pretty much identical to the Unimat 3 as far as I can see, but there may be subtle changes that I am not aware of. The 4 I believe was made in Taiwan whereas the 3 is probably the last of the Austrian built machines. Maybe the 4 is simply a designation number for the machines that were built in Taiwan?

If I were looking for a miniature machine tool setup new today, I would probably be leaning towards the Sherline that has a UK agent/sales outlet. Relying on memory the name Millhill Supplies comes to mind as the name of the supplier. Besides Joe Martin's book Table top Machining that I mentioned in an earlier post, having looked on Millhill's site there is a download for the building, setting up and using of the Sherline Lathe and Milling machines. It is very comprehensive. So if anyone is looking to invest in the Sherline machines this free download will be well worth obtaining. Having looked through it I noticed a link for a video within it too.

 

Edited Wednesday at 08:15 AM by Bugatti Fan

[Aaronw]

On 7/22/2025 at 7:42 AM, Bainford said:

Interesting about the Peatol brand.

Unfortunately the Taig website, which looks good and is well stocked with accessories, is difficult to discern the differences between the various lathe kits. There are many different 'kit' options, and is a bit weak on descriptions, making decisions difficult, but they do sell complete kits that include chucks and a motor. When I started writing this reply, I was going to tell you to refer to the website of the Canadian distributor, Lee Valley Tools, but I see they no longer deal in Taigs. This is a shame, as their website laid out the various options and accessories in a non-ambiguous way. I plan on buying a lathe myself in the next couple years, as soon as I sell enough of my stash to fund the purchase, and spent the last hour on the Taig site, but I came away with more questions than answers.

 

Carter Tools is an authorized Taig reseller, and has a far better website than Taig's. Price is pretty much the same as buying direct from Taig. Nick Carter who owns Carter Tools is also a fan and user of Taig lathes, so he has a lot of info available on the site.

 

[Aaronw]

On 7/23/2025 at 12:08 AM, Bugatti Fan said:

It would be interesting to find out why the Unimats stopped production. 

At one time they appeared to be the go to miniature machines here in England, and had links with the late Gerald Wingrove. He wrote a book named Unimat Lathe Projects. I used the drawings in it to make a four way tool post for my machine that saves me a lot of time whilst using it.

My particular machine is a Unimat 4, pretty much identical to the Unimat 3 as far as I can see, but there may be subtle changes that I am not aware of. The 4 I believe was made in Taiwan whereas the 3 is probably the last of the Austrian built machines. Maybe the 4 is simply a designation number for the machines that were built in Taiwan?

If I were looking for a miniature machine tool setup new today, I would probably be leaning towards the Sherline that has a UK agent/sales outlet. Relying on memory the name Millhill Supplies comes to mind as the name of the supplier. Besides Joe Martin's book Table top Machining that I mentioned in an earlier post, having looked on Millhill's site there is a download for the building, setting up and using of the Sherline Lathe and Milling machines. It is very comprehensive. So if anyone is looking to invest in the Sherline machines this free download will be well worth obtaining. Having looked through it I noticed a link for a video within it too.

 

 

I think it was mostly price, and competition. Emco made a range of hobby lathes from the 3" Unimat to a very high end 13" lathe. Emco seems to have gotten out of the hobby market by the early 2000s and now make industrial CNC machinery. 

 

The original Unimat came out in the 1950s, at which time there just wasn't much like it. The Atlas / Craftsman 6x18" and Myford 7 lathes were popular hobby lathes at that time, but while small, they require a dedicated bench being about 3 feet long, and 150-300lbs. These were huge in comparison to a Unimat and at least twice the price.

 

By the 1970s you have Sherline and Taig entering the very small lathe market, and they are arguably better lathes than the original Unimat. Probably not a coincidence that Emco replaced the original series DB/SL with the Unimat 3 in the late 70s. The Unimat 3 is a better design, but it is also bigger (about the size of a Sherline or Taig, and again probably not coincidence). To reduce costs they moved production to Taiwan in the 1990s creating the Unimat 4. 

They broke ties with the North American distributor about the same time as the switch from Unimat DB/SL to the Unimat 3 which probably did them no favors considering the USA was the largest market for their machines. 

By the late 80s they were competing with a whole range of small lathes, Sherline and Taig, plus several new ones from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China.  

Edited 23 hours ago by Aaronw

[Bugatti Fan]

Very interesting feedback Aaron.

Thanks for the update about why the parent company ceased  the little Unimat machine production.

A friend of mine has one of the very early Unimzt machines where the bed of the machine is two round bars. It looks a bit quaint compared to my Unimat 4 that has a cast iron bed.  Besides the Taig/Peatol and Sherline you mention that there are others from Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan. I will have to look on the internet out of curiosity and see what I can find out about them.

Edited 12 hours ago by Bugatti Fan

[Aaronw]

5 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

Very interesting feedback Aaron.

Thanks for the update about why the parent company ceased  the little Unimat machine production.

A friend of mine has one of the very early Unimzt machines where the bed of the machine is two round bars. It looks a bit quaint compared to my Unimat 4 that has a vast iron bed.  Besides the Taig/Peatol and Sherline you mention that there are others from Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan. I will have to look on the internet out of curiosity and see what I can find out about them.

 

Yeah, the Unimat with the two bars is what most are talking about when they mention the Unimat. It was available from the 1950s into the mid 1970s with fairly minor changes. A switch from cast iron to aluminum was one of the big changes. It was really a tiny multi-tool, at one time available with attachments to make it a mini-table saw, jig saw, planer, grinder, drill, lathe, and milling machine. They also made a power feed, and threading attachment.

The Unimat 3 seems like a much better lathe, but it isn't trying to be 5 or 6 different tools.

  

Lathes UK has an amazing archive of information. Other than the Chinese lathes we got in the US, I think a lot of the other small lathes were more limited in distribution, but each would still take a bite out of Emco's sales. Not a ton in the smaller than 6" size, but there are a few. Emco was Austrian made, so fairly high end machines in both quality and cost. People like cheap.

In particular there is: 

Manix (Toyo / Sakai / Record / Proxxon) made in Japan and later South Korea. Very similar in design to the Unimat 3.

Prazi / Hobbymat was East German and they had several lathes very closely matched to Emco's smaller lathes. I have a project Prazi SD300 I got for practically nothing. Mine will take quite a bit of work to get it running well, but I can see that in its prime it was a very good small lathe. The SD300 is quite a bit bigger than a Unimat 3, closer to the Emco Compact 5, but they also sold a smaller MD200.

The Lathes UK site doesn't include many Chinese lathes, and the history of the Chinese lathes is rather hard to find. The classic 7" mini lathe and the 9x19" lathe sold by Harbor Freight and others was definitely around by the late 1980s. The smaller 4x6" and 6x10" lathes probably were not too far behind and those would be direct competitors (in size, not quality) for a little lathe like the Unimat 3 and 4. 

Edited 18 hours ago by Aaronw

[Straightliner59]

8 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

A friend of mine has one of the very early Unimzt machines where the bed of the machine is two round bars

My first lathe was one of those. My second was, too! They worked okay, but you really had to watch the load. Currently, Micro Mark sells a machine called a Unimat. I doubt it has anything much in common with the earlier ones. It's likely someone just paid for the name. I've had my Sherline machines for over 20 years now. I love them. My current skills don't deserve the mill, but, I'm getting a little more proficient with it, due only to more frequent use. It is especially useful in performing simple operations, like drilling a radial array.

[Straightliner59]

I stand to correct myself. There isn't the Unimat, on their website. It is in the last catalog they sent me, which might actually be a couple of years old, at this point.

[Straightliner59]

 

 

Edited 14 hours ago by Straightliner59

[Bugatti Fan]

The modular machine with the aluminium extruded bed that Daniel has shown us is the Unimzt 1. It has been around a very long time. I bought mine about 25 years ago at a big modelling exhibition in London.  A number of years before my Unimat 4.  It is ok for very light work and is actually quite a good set of kit if into wood, brass and aluminium. 

As the extrusions are fitted together with special inserts that screw into and lock the T shaped grooves I found that rigidity was a problem. So I made up some flat steel plates that could be screwed on the outside across 2 extensions to both align and make rigid when assembled. Earlier versions like mine did not have those plates available, but I believe that they are now offered by the manufacturer.

Some people look at the Unimat 1 kit as a bit of a toy machine, but it is a very useful and inexpensive way of dipping your toes in the water of machining  without lashing out a lot of money on one of the serious machines like the Sherline, Taig/Peatol or the now discontinued Unimats 3&4.

I believe that the Unimat 1 modular machine was developed by Majer in Austria as an educational hobby machine besides the other Unimats aimed at model engineering enthusiasts. So it fits that purpose quite well and is well served with accessories to expand its uses.

Edited 10 hours ago by Bugatti Fan

[peteski]

The newest Unimat (show above) looks very similar to Proxxon machines.  Unimzt sounds like a misspelling.

Edited 8 hours ago by peteski

[Bugatti Fan]

PetevI think you might be getting confused a bit about that modular Unimat being similar to Proxxon machines as to my knowledge they do not make anything like the Unimat I modular tool.

Proxxon make top quality miniature machines more like the Shsrline and the now defunct Unimats 3&4. Take a look at their website as they make a very good range of power tools for model makers besides the lathes and milling machines.