Unimat SL1000 & DB200, Accessories?

Guys,
I'm not sure to post this, BUT I thought here would be the best place!

As some of you have read already, I have 2 Unimats.... One, set up as a Milling Machine/Drill Press, and the Second one, set up as a Metal Lathe...

Now, I have SEVERAL Accessories to BOTH machines, as those of you that have one, know theres the "basic" stuff with the Little Machine Shop in a Box.... So with that, I have several other attachments/accessories too. I have 2 Steady Rests, one I plan to make the brass contacts points to have really small roller bearing contacts, to machine plastic and not "mar" it. And then I have all sorts of other stuff, Dividing Head with the 48 division gear in them both (I'd like to get at least one full set of the dividing gears at some point)

Then, I have the auto-feed on the lathe. And to that, I have a 4-jaw independant headstock chuck, two 3-jaw headstock chucks, and the tailstock "drill" chuck.

Now to give you reading this an idea of m,y interests, I'm a model builder, I make a lot of my own parts, I even resin mold just about everything I make! BUT, I know when "milling" its not good to use the drill press chuck to hold end mills, and I got a Collet set to fit my machine.... Either of them!

The reason for this posting is I want to find out what a "FULL" set of collets consist of? How many? in both SAE & Metric sizes....

The reason is to have/look to get them, and more to that, I plan to make a cabinet to house ALL the accessories to my 2 machines mounted on the wall behind them. SO to make a special section of the cabinet, I want to make that area big enough to hold EACH collet insert, as well as the collet chuck and headstock lead. NOW, the collets? ER-16's.

THEN another question, on the ER-16's, are they the only "size/type" collect to fit a Unimat? As the largest ER-16 collet I have is 3/8ths, as I have I think a little set, of 6 collets. Can say an ER-20 set be used on the Unimats, and if so, do I need to have a different headstock lead to hold them?

Thanks for reading and any help/guidance is greatly appreciated!

So NO ONE knows how many ER16 collets there are in both SAE & Metric? Absolutely HARD TO BELIEVE in a forum dedicated to tools......

Most standard sizes of the ER16 from 1/32" through 7/16" including metric from 1 mm through 10 mm would be a total of 33
Copied from https://www.maritool.com/
ER16 series collets have a capacity of .015-.4375 inches. Each ER16 collet has a range of .039 inches(1mm). ER16 Collets .118 and smaller have a range of only .015 inches. The size indicated on the collet is the largest size it can hold and can be collapsed smaller within its collapse range mentioned above. For example, ER16-1/4 can grab a round shank from .250 diameter to .211 diameter. Please refer to our ER16 Collet print for general ER16 dimensions.

I used to have an Index mill that used the ER 50 a standard set for it was 20 but the ER 50 being much larger had a wider grip range than the other ER collets

Within reason and lathe swing, you could machine a holder for a larger collet range. As long as it fits threaded spindle connection, and the nut clears the carriage, anything goes...
The tapers need to match - nobody will care what thread combination you have.
Whether spindle bearings can bear the load at speed is a different story. Mini lathes haven't a great deal of space between inboard and outboard bearing is a function of rigidity.

Hemi,

I too own a UNIMAT SL 1000 that I bought new in 1970. I have modified and improved the small 3" swing lathe (see http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/m...00-lathe-10111 ).

Included in the modifications are a homemade ER16 collet chuck (see http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/e...0273#post57039 ) made form 1144 stressproof steel and measures 0.0004" TIR using high-precision Techniks collets. Later, I discovered a way to grind the ER16 chuck to even better TIR (see http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/u...6880#post67090 ) using a grinding experiment with a chuck ID TIR of at 0.0001” without the collet and a measured TIR around 0.0005” when using the collet in the ER16 chuck and gage pin for measuring combined TIR mesaured at 1" from the collet face.

One of the most important facts is no matter how accurate the collet chuck ID is in TIR, the ultimate quality of the ER16 collets determine the overall TIR accuracy. In addition, it is possible to ruin the TIR of high quality ER16 collets so don't over-stress these by extending their holding range beyond the intended 1mm extension range of the collets.

Regards,

Paul Jones

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Paul Jones

Hemi,

I too own a UNIMAT SL 1000 that I bought new in 1970. I have modified and improved the small 3" swing lathe (see http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/m...00-lathe-10111 ).

Included in the modifications are a homemade ER16 collet chuck (see http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/e...0273#post57039 ) made form 1144 stressproof steel and measures 0.0004" TIR using high-precision Techniks collets. Later, I discovered a way to grind the ER16 chuck to even better TIR (see http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/u...6880#post67090 ) using a grinding experiment with a chuck ID TIR of at 0.0001” without the collet and a measured TIR around 0.0005” when using the collet in the ER16 chuck and gage pin for measuring combined TIR mesaured at 1" from the collet face.

One of the most important facts is no matter how accurate the collet chuck ID is in TIR, the ultimate quality of the ER16 collets determine the overall TIR accuracy. In addition, it is possible to ruin the TIR of high quality ER16 collets so don't over-stress these by extending their holding range beyond the intended 1mm extension range of the collets.

Regards,

Paul Jones

---

The Unimat collets are E-16 and not ER-16. Sounds like semantics but they are not the same. ER system collets have a snap ring and the Shaublin E-16 collets for the Unimat do not.

Kindest Regards, Les

Sorry Paul, I gave you information you already knew. After reading your post on upgrades I realize you perhaps know more about collets than I. Your mods are very nice. I had two Unimat3's years ago. I wish I had not sold them.

Kindest Regards, Les

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rockytime

Sorry Paul, I gave you information you already knew. After reading your post on upgrades I realize you perhaps know more about collets than I. Your mods are very nice. I had two Unimat3's years ago. I wish I had not sold them. Kindest Regards, Les

---

If you like a tool or machine and can afford it, buy it. If your appraisal was accurate, it will prove it's worth. Allow time to wring out what something can do.
Then, like Warren Buffet and his stock purchasing method, keep it. It's rare to own and tool up, sell, and expect to replace at the cost of 'old money'.

Rockytime ,

Thank you for the comment and information. The original collets intended for the Unimat SL 1000 lathe from the 1960's and beyond timeframe were the Shaublin E16 style. I have still a few of the E16 collets and also the original E16 collet chuck from when I bought the Unimat lathe new in 1970. Unfortunately the Unimat SL 10000 has the old style E16 collet chuck using the Shaublin E-16 style collets and these have become very difficult and expensive to find (check out some of the too expensive asking prices on eBay). This is why I switched to the more easily obtained and far less expensive ER16 style collets (I use the ER16 collets from Techniks with TIR of 0.0002") and made the new ER16 chuck to fit the Unimat SL 1000 M12X1 spindle nose thread.

Thank you for reading through my postings on the subject.

Regards,

Paul Jones