Precision Pillar Drill

I have an Emco Unimat 3 lathe that I've had for a long time:
Emco Unimat 3 – glue-it.com

However, although the pillar mill/drill attachment is really useful it is a pain to keep converting the lathe between mill/drill and lathe. This got me wondering if I could buy another pillar on ebay and make a base and table for a permanent pillar drill.

Attachment 17384

The full article is here:

Unimat 3 Pillar Drill – glue-it.com

I've got a slightly more powerful sewing machine motor for it now and this also rotates in the correct direction so that it can hang down under the pulleys. The result is a tiny pillar drill that sits perfectly on the model making bench. Overall it is around 40cm high.

editor@glue-it.com,

You have a great idea. The conversion and adaptation of the mill/drill attachment is nicely made. Also thanks for the link to your website.

Paul

NICE!!!! I have planned to do something similar, only using SL1000 & DB200 parts, to make sort-of a Unimat 3..... BUT mine will bolt to the bench when I'm done....

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I've updated the Unimat Pillar Drill - the bracket that holds the table was never quite right with regards to the accuracy of the hole and so the table was not quite dead upright. So I filled the hole with Durafix and then machined the hole again in place on the pillar drill.

Attachment 28873

It's now absolutely spot on in terms of accuracy

editor@glue-it.com,

Nice Conversion Job!!! What is the drilling capacity in terms of max drilling depth and chuck capacity?

the maximum chuck capacity is 9mm - but this can be increased if you use the 3-jaw lathe chuck
the spindle is threaded 14x1mm
Travel = ? will have to measure this along with the maximum throat

editor@glue-it.com,

I own a couple of Unimat DB-200 lathes so I know what they are capable of doing.
I have not had a Unimat 3 in my hands, so I am wondering what diameter the post is? I am assuming it is larger than the DB post and therefore more rigid...
Could you tell me what the diameter is?

I've just measured all of the specifications:

Motor power: 120W @ 7000rpm
Ratios: 3.7:1 and 2.5:1
Spindle speeds: 1900rpm & 2800rpm
Spindle mount: 14x1mm
Spindle travel: 25mm
Throat: 64mm
Max chuck to table: 122mm (3mm drill bit max is ~85mm)
Dividing plate: 6, 8 and 10 holes
Divisions available: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10
Table mount: 14x1mm
Column diameter: 28mm
Column length: 325mm

The column is 28mm diameter and never had a problem with rigidity of the column and have used this for gear cutting.

I have a Hobbymat lathe and I fix this column to the cross-slide and an indexing plate to the back of the hobbymat spindle:
Gear Cutting with the Hobbymat MD65 – glue-it.com

a short video describing the pillar drill and showing you around it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jeu1b0RLTTE&t=4s

Nice video!

This looks like a very handy machine to have.

editor@glue-it.com,

Thank you for the info!

The precision drill/mill is nicely done. Nice work.
What is the total quill travel?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by old_toolmaker

The precision drill/mill is nicely done. Nice work.
What is the total quill travel?

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Quill travel is 25mm (~1 inch)

The sewing machine motor is ok, but it's not 120W of output power. I keep thinking I might swap this for a brushless RC car motor and controller of around 200W and higher speed. However, this Unimat 3 head unit has plain bearings and so I need to then change angular contact. A job for the future.

Thanks for the info. The quill travel of your drilling spindle is the same as the spindles I have for my DB200. I have three standard spindle with E13 angular contact bearings and a watchmakers spindle which has both E13 bearings at the rear and needle roller bearings at the nose. I am thinking of cutting a few more rack teeth in the standard drilling spindle to gain a little more travel.

Thought you might like to see the indexing feature that is built into the table support, this is a great addition for items such as the hub cap bolt holes

https://youtu.be/WHs95ByHuv0

Neat, I moved the mill/drill off my Compact 5 so I could do jobs on two different machines without disturbing setups.