starting 100% completely from scratch! what would be the best first few moves?

[swood1]

Yes there are a few books on the Unimat SL, all of which will be useful for OP. But my reason for recommending a Unimat type lathe was based more on the usefulness of such a small machine. With something small and modular in form like a Unimat he can use this as his main lathe (drill press and small mill), initially and if he enjoys the hobby and he gains access to more space the purchase of a larger lathe (such as an ML10), would work hand in hand with a Unimat especially for clockwork.
The Unimat drill head although not particularly powerful is ideal for cutting brass. With a bit of ingenuity and a simple adapter fitted to the cross slide of a larger lathe it can be used for wheel cutting and or/milling.

Steven

 

[swood1]

My first attempt at adding a photo. Hopefully shows you what I am talking about; in this case its attached to the cross slide of my Lorch 100mm Toolmakers lathe but I have similar attachment for a Myford.

Good luck.

 

[goldstar31]

Steven

I do appreciate the comments and photo. When I mentioned the Siec C4 It was so much of a bargain that once I had the ordinary accessories- new, I bough the vertical milling attachment so that I could work indoors- in the warmth. As stated earlier, I can swop most of the Myford tooling with the use of a simple plate of mild steel.
But as the Quorn is seemingly OK from its long layoff, I am sort of toying between trying to convert it to a Mark 3 and adding an upright pillar to do a bit of surface grinding on the C4 using the 'headstock' assembly.


One day I just might graduate to posting photos. I'm not very savvy on such exotic accomplishments

Cheers and Thanks

Norman

 

[swood1]

I only just managed to work out how to post photos myself. Use the insert file button, not the image one.

Surface grinding would be nice

 

[holmes_ca]

G Jones,
The Taig lathe is actually very accurate in use and if Jerry Kieffer can produce small Models on Sherline equipment the Taig will also, incase you might be interested take a look at some of my videos on you tube my channel is listed Walter Maisey

 

[Wizard69]

When it comes to clock making, maybe not watch making I could actually see the need for both a watch makers lathe and something g bigger down the road. This if the goal is sizeable wall or mantle clocks.

to put it another way, lathes with limited Swings will box you in if more sizable pieces are planned. On the flip side the small nature and faster spindles can be very useful for small clock making. You can literally get started with a small watch makers lathe pretty cheap. I’ve seen them go for a song at auctions. I believe that was a tiny Unimat Shop around you will eventually find a bargain.

by the way that Universal Pillar Tool is something that should be easy to build at a Makerspace. The casting sets are available in the US if needed. The outfit is: “_Martin Model & Pattern. The UPT is directly applicable to clock making and is an example of a very large DIY project.