Unimat SL Adjustable Drill Stop

[Paul Jones]

I want to share some photos of an improvement I made to my Unimat SL 1000 lathe which has a 3" swing. I bought this lathe new in 1970, used it for a few years and then put into storage. I now use the Unimat for machining parts too small for my 7” and 12” lathes.

One of my Unimat improvements was permanently installing a milling and drilling head (see Homemade Lathe Modifications ). The milling and drilling head depth of cut can be adjusted with both a lead screw for milling and a spindle feed lever for drilling. I added an adjustable drill stop and digital dial indicator for repetitive drilling operations. There is a knurled collar used to set the depth and collar and stop rod can be lowered and then returned to its previous stopping depth when needed. An additional benefit the adjustable drill stop can hold a dial test indicator when the spindle is in use.