"The Cool Tool" Mini Lathe/Mill combo, anyone use or have one???

[longballlumber]

Has anyone had experience using this particular machine or know someone who can comment?

http://www.thecooltool.com/produktg...=Unimat+Classic

Thanks

Mike

 

[ScottVanSlooten]

The uni-turn mill is just like a Sher-Line and I have a mill and lathy from sher-line and I'm very happy with them. Scott

 

[longballlumber]

The uni-turn mill is just like a Sher-Line and I have a mill and lathy from sher-line and I'm very happy with them. Scott

Thanks for the reply,

Actually, this particular mini Mill/Lathe is made mostly of plastic. I don't think that would be conducive to cutting metal. So, I am going to pass on it.

 

[Jus10]

Hey, I don't know how much you want to spend but I prefer a single mill and lathe vs a combo. It makes things a lot easier to work with. Have you considered mini mill and lathe? Many tool supply companies carry them. I picked mine up at a "Homier" event. Harbor frieght or Grizzly also carry them under different names and have a few different sizes. The lathe probably set you back 300 and the mill 400-500 depending. There are also many accessories you can get for them also mainly from http://www.littlemachineshop.com/ . Also check out http://www.mini-lathe.com/ they also have a section for the mill also. That site goes indepth on these and has lots of links to projects to give you an idea of what you can do with them. These machines are pretty good considering price compaired to there full size brothers. I'm a machinist and honestly sometimes I perfer to work on my mini lathe vs a large lathe with a 6 foot bed when working on small parts thats 1" long. And with rc hobbies (and I do them all) I haven't found anything that I've need to make that I couldn't make on the smaller machines (size wise). CNC is mighty handy but thats $$$ for home use, if you'd like to go that road you can get some of the homemade kits for converting smaller mills like the one mentioned above... but its not as accurate or as strong as a full size bridgeport, not to mention a whole lot of work. If you have any machining questions throw them at me, and I'll try to answer them.