It sounds awful.

I dropped one of the first things I made and it went under the headstock. Took ages to fish it out. Keep watching for further ideas, I now have auto feed.

@@myfordboy I will, my mini lathe is an Optimum D140x250 Vario which came with auto feed and metal change gears. But I assume all these small lathes made in Asia use a lot of the same castings for the bedways and headstock etc.

I had a Unimat 3 but this one is much more rigid and a much better motor.

@@myfordboy It looks like a Unimat 4 wich were a sturdier and slightly larger version of a unimat3. It's only the paintjobb and drivetrain that seem to differ from my Unimat 4. The U4 had a 2-speed motor with a 4-speed O-ring belt transmission. I changed belts to some green roundbelt that was way grippier and durable then thos O-rings. That was a huge upgrade in performance when the belts don't slip so easily. And they are still going 20 years later.

I’ve struggled with using insert tooling and am having to up my game by learning how to properly grind, and lap, high speed steel tools. They don’t last as long but, I think, they don’t take as much cutting force and leave a nicer finish. Definitely more of a commitment then a larger lathe.

@@greggschwabauer6241 HSS is definitely the way to go with small lathes! I find high quality branded cobalt HSS stays sharp almost as long as carbide.

If you use the correct tips the finish is suburb. You don't see me using anything else in my videos. You need a small tip dia for small lathes, i.e 0.2mm

@@myfordboy Yes the correct tip helps. CCGT tips seem to work best on small lathes. Probably because they are meant for taking smaller finishing cuts.

@@myfordboy What type inserts do you use?

i am sure u can cut single point threads with a stepper and a unit wich dials the speeds to match for a thread...but the question is do u realy want such a small lathe...as soon as it comes to machine a small steel part...this lathe will creep away under the load of a parting tool...i bought myself a 400mm 750watt chinese import lathe and it has a german motor and a german vfd unit and still when it comes to machine cromoly steel (42cromo4) parting of ends in a disaster....all other materials are no problem, but in the end i sometimes wich i have a qualiuty crosslide and a propper german or swiss lathe ...

I have the building of the collet chuck recorded and it will be the subject of a forthcoming video.

@@myfordboy Thankyouthankyouthankyou.

Excellent. I'm also interested to see this. Many thanks.

You don't appear to be dead - so there's probably still time.

Go For It !

Buy one and try it. Did that with all of my machines, without any education....

All cast iron construction.

Yeah, or even stepped pulleys so you can change gears

My uderstanding is the Sieg lathes are sold by different retailers and some claim to have higher quality control. I don't know the position with this Axminster one but they seem to be the only suplier of this model in the UK.

No I have not ried those. My understanding they both have aluminium bed. The Axminster one shown here has a cast iron bed and no aluminium parts.

@@myfordboy got it. thanks

@@myfordboy No, not in either case. My Taig (Peatol) has an aluminium box-base supporting a steel ground-dovetail bed. I think the Sherline has a steel bed also. I’m happy with my Taig for most stuff - I’m making an ‘Ellie tram engine” and its done the wheels and engine parts just fine, including a SS flywheel. My clapped out ML7 just can’t cope with any accurate heavy cutting so the Taig has to do it. Les

Thank you for the clarification, I have never seen either of those lathes in the flesh. I made an Ellie. ukposts.info/slow/PLHUJDLlTM_9XRig947d7GHh3Kfm6R5CRd

You can buy a tailstock chuck that screws onto the tailstock. I bought one but the runout on mine was poor so I returned it for a refund. The chuck I have now has an internal morse taper. The adaptor I made has a close fitting parallel section that fits into the tailstock barrel with a male morse taper to fit the chuck on the other end. A blind nut was made to match the tailstock thead. The spindle part of the adaptor has an increased dia section in the middle that the nut bears on.

I have a Sanou self centering one bought from Amazon and I see them on Aliexpress. I have not looked for an independant adjustable jaw one.

I have no plans for the toolpost but can send files for the other parts. I need your email to send them.

It's coming soon.

@@myfordboy And I assumed you thought of that before me! 👍

The Uniimat 3 has a taper turning top slide which will fit this machine and a mill head and post which bolts to the rear of the bed.

Ideal if you do not have space for a larger lathe.

@@myfordboy ideal would be getting more space

How much price

The Taig, also known in UK as a Peatol is made of aluminium extrusions, not cast iron like the Sieg/Axminster. I know which I would prefer.

nah, it tightens itself under load. just can't let it run backwards

@@CatNolara Like right now? You can't change the direction of rotation? How are you going to cut threads then? I, for example, always bevel my turned parts from behind so that I don't have to adjust the turning tool. To do this, I have to let the machine run to the left.

@@lutsifer5847 this lathe can't cut threads anyway, the screw for the carriage can't be connected to the spindle. Only with a die like he showed, but no single point cutting. Lathes that are able to reverse the spindle rotation usually have a different style of mounting system for the chuck, on this one the chuck would just come loose.

@@CatNolara OK, as I see it now it's just a lathe for the simple and primitive jobs like making small bolts and bushings.

@@lutsifer5847 Or watches and clocks and camera shutters and scientific instruments and … They can be just as precise as you need them to be, more limited by operator skill than anything. Which is the point, the one thing this type of lathe is not designed for is “Production”. A good tap, die or screwplate can cut an excellent set of threads, as long as you have the time and patience to learn how to use them. If you want to bang out 10 identical copies of something it short order, these are not the machines to do it with.

Yes. Sieg lathe which is badged by several distributors.