Disassembling and Cleaning the Tailstock and Spindle of the Emco Unimat SL Lathe

Рет қаралды 16,553

Күн бұрын

The Emco Unimat SL is a small hobby engineer's lathe first made available in the 1950s. It features bed rails made from parallel round bars, a simple flexible design, and a huge range of accessories and add-ons which make it astonishingly versatile.
I'm between workshops for a few months, and I picked this lathe up second hand as a project I can work on with minimal space and equipment. In this video I spend some time disassembling the tailstock and the spindle, cleaning all the parts, and carefully removing corrosion from a few of the important areas.
Many thanks to Paul at The Knackler's Workshop for his series on a similar lathe. He really helped me know what I was getting myself into, and where to start. If you're impatient to find out more, go and watch his series while you wait for more videos from me.
The Knackler's Workshop:
/ theknacklersworkshop
Paul's Unimat SL Playlist:
• Emco Unimat SL - Resto...
Many thanks to Saar at smallathe, an entire channel focused on making things with the Unimat SL, who gave me some vital pointers on rebuilding the Unimat SL spindle.
smallathe:
/ @smallathe
00:00 Introduction
00:17 Disassembling the tailstock
01:51 Cleaning the tailstock parts
05:47 Disassembling the spindle
09:22 Ultrasonic cleaning the spindle parts
11:27 Looking at the chuck
12:44 Removing the rust
Edited with:
Davinci Resolve 7.4.6
Audacity 3.1.3
Music:
Easy Lemon by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty...
Artist: incompetech.com/

Пікірлер: 72

@Engineerd3d 2 жыл бұрын

I enjoy your channel very much and love the care your putting in this machine rebuild. One thing you want to avoid however is putting bearings or precision slideways in an ultrasonic cleaner. It will cause a thing called Brinelling, which is basically micro dents on very hard surfaces, or dimpling, this causes loss of precision. At least in theory it should, what the real world impact on a lathe like this is unknown to me. Just figured I would mention it. Keep up the great work.

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the information. You've prompted me to do a bit of searching, and information on brinelling caused by ultrasonic cleaning seems pretty scarce. From what I've been able to find, it sounds like brinelling occurs when the bearings are cleaned while in contact (e.g. between the balls and the races.) and the ultrasonic vibrations cause the two metal surfaces to vibrate against each other. Definitely something to be avoided in future. Based on what I've read, this should only be an issue for slideways if they are assembled during cleaning, so it should still be safe to clean slideways if they are disassembled. Does this fit with what you know? The best source of data I've found is a book chapter about an investigation into problems manufacturing dictation machines, where the bearings were cleaned to replace the lubrication. I can't get access to the full text of the chapter though. I've been subscribed to your channel for a while; thanks for dropping by with such an interesting comment!

@Engineerd3d 2 жыл бұрын

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe i am by far not an expert in this. However I have seen some mention on breneling being caused by cavitation as well. In fact in an unrelated but similar effect, old diesel engines had issues with cavitation eating away the cylinder liners even as much as causing coolant leaks into the cylinders. The remedy at the time was a coolant that was developed that prevented cavitation. Again Not an expert on this.

@Venge94 2 жыл бұрын

There’s something hugely satisfying about watching the methodical cleaning and inspection of these lathe parts.

@VintageGearMan Жыл бұрын

I thought i was the only one left on the planet that pays this much attention to detail. Ha! Nice to know I am normal after all! This is great! Thank you!

@tomt9543 2 жыл бұрын

I would have never thought of putting a glass jar in the ultrasonic cleaner instead of dumping the solution into the machine! Pure genius! I Always enjoy your posts!

@bostedtap8399 2 жыл бұрын

The spindle bearings look like "Magneto" the bearings, ref easily disassemble. Lovely engineering, thanks for sharing. Best regards John from the Black Country.

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 2 жыл бұрын

They certainly look extremely similar. From reading various sources, it sounds like Magneto bearings can intentionally be disassebled easily to make re-assembling the Magneto easier. I'm guessing I should have looked more carefully at the way the balls and cage sit on the inner race, as it should be straightforward to remove them.

@bostedtap8399 2 жыл бұрын

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe The first time I can across them was in a magneto on a AJS motorbike, as a young apprentice, I thought they were angular contact bearings, but was confused that they could be disassembled?. It was the first magneto I ever worked on, some element of the insulation was damaged, but luckily one of the guys at work fixed it, they was plenty of suitable Phenolic resin (Tufnol Brand), and araldite available. I keep looking at these lathes on eBay, they have quite a following. Best regards John.

@donaldmatthies6026 Жыл бұрын

Another nice video explanation. Thank you for taking time to film, edit and post this video. Liked and subscribed.

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe Жыл бұрын

Thank you for taking the time to watch and comment. It makes it all worthwhile.

@MakarovFox 2 жыл бұрын

Adventures with a very small ultrasonic cleaner

@kokodin5895 2 жыл бұрын

i love the pattern on thet table. it reminds me of old shool desks that were in my school and my kitchen table which was covered by a sheet of similarly printed melamine board and we also have some green of the same thing on a stool

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 2 жыл бұрын

My first school had desks like that too. Very nostalgic. This table is a battered old picnic table in the corner of the garden shed.

@shawnmcpeak7934 Жыл бұрын

For the bed rails, wrap them in paper towels and then soak the towels in Evaporust....you can then leave the ends of both rods, still covered with paper towels in your small tub for several hours or all night....the towels will continue to wick the liquid along the length of the rods

@edgeeffect Жыл бұрын

I've had an SL for years... but I've always thought it's parts are either steel or aluminium... since you said "zamak" a couple of episodes back, you've got me thinking and, yeah, it should have been obvious, the tailstock and carriage are (obviously) some kind of Zamak like alloy. Mmmmm.... I love the smell of warm WD-40 in the morning!

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe Жыл бұрын

The original Unimat was made of cast iron, but there are pretty few of them around. I learned about the Zamak alloy from lathes.co.uk which is a wealth of information for all machine owners. You reminded me I need to re-supply my WD40.

@edgeeffect Жыл бұрын

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe yeah, the cast iron ones would be FAB... I've seen a few cast iron beds on E. Bay... but they're out of my price range.

@Roy_Tellason 2 жыл бұрын

The conical springy washers you encountered are called Belleville washers. For deep voids in the casting try cotton swabs, they'll give you the reach that you need. Looks like you could use some gloves... :-)

@rbgp316 2 жыл бұрын

I've been waiting for this!

@CraigLYoung 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing 👍

@setatampio9016 2 жыл бұрын

I really like your camera work, so pleasant to watch.

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I keep working on it, and I'm trying to improve.

@TheKnacklersWorkshop 2 жыл бұрын

Hello Al, Nicely done... I like the idea of using the hot air gun to dry parts, I will be adopting that process moving forward. See you on the next one. Take care. Paul,,

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Paul, it basically happened by accident. I spotted the heat gun sitting in the corner of a shelf, and wondered if it might help. Turned out to be way less fiddly than trying to dry with blue tissue.

@pauldevey8628 2 жыл бұрын

I have done some restoration in the past but learned new techniques with these two vids. Excited for more and thank you.

@Wyowanderer 2 жыл бұрын

I love your method of using a heat gun to dry the parts.

@lv_woodturner3899 2 жыл бұрын

I love EvapoRust although the parts I have needed to remove rust were for hand planes, so no precision surfaces. I left my parts in the solution overnight. The grey film came off easily with scotchbrite. I am not sure what tools you have available. If you have a small triangular file, the 60 deg angle can be used to clean up the mushrooming on the screws. It will be take some time. file a small area of the thread, rotate the thread, etc. It may allow you to remove enough of the mushrooming so you can get the screws out and then cleanup with a die. Cleaning and removing rust are very time consuming, but the results make it worth the effort. Well done. Dave.

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 2 жыл бұрын

Good to know the grey film can be removed easily. Now that I'm back in my own shop I have a decent range of tools, so getting those tools out won't be difficult. I'm not going to try and put the same screws back in though. Not worth it for the price of a pair of screws.

@HostilePride 2 жыл бұрын

If you don't want to cut those screws out of the tool holder you may be able to use some tape to safe up a metal file (or safe up the part), and file through the mushroomed ends. I'm really interested in seeing more of this lathe, will be interesting to see just how accurate it all is once you get it back together. Found your channel recently, you have a lot of great content, thanks for sharing!

@Smallathe 2 жыл бұрын

A very cool video on the lathe spindle and tail stock cleanup! I'd love to see the run-out test on the spindle once done. As for the screws - if you opt to replace them please consider drilling a them and placing a brass pin as a soft tip. This will help if you choose to hold anything softer than steel (e.g. brass tools). Looking forward for the assembly part!

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 2 жыл бұрын

I'll try and get a read on the spindle runout, and post a short video. Unfortunately I don't have a measurement from before the rebuild, but I do know the spindle runs more easily now than it did.

@garyscoville7741 2 жыл бұрын

Let me say that I really enjoy your channel. I was noticing that you are not leaving your parts in the "Evap-O-Rust" any where near long enoph for "It" to do the work. I usually let it set for at least 24hrs. for it to do it's work. I hope this helps you out a little bit. Cheers!

@jc3745 2 жыл бұрын

As a suggestion if available in the UK, the purchase of a pistol cleaning kit may make some of these cleaning operations a bit easier. An adapter or two and some shotgun bore brushes could be attached to the pistol rod/handle.

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 2 жыл бұрын

Bore brushes are probably available, and I know I have a .22 air rifle bore brush kicking around somewhere. The plastic pipe brushes I have were pretty effective for the bores though, as those aren't places where think dried dirt had built up. Thanks for the tip.

@olivvapor4873 Ай бұрын

Very instructive video, thanks ! I will definitely reuse intel if I need to dismantle things on my SL ! 😀 May I ask what is your cleaning solution, and how long are your cleaning US sessions ?

@santecastignani4192 Жыл бұрын

Congratulations as always for your videos, this restoration is also well done, but if I may, after a ferrous component has been in contact with a liquid, before wd 40 I feel safer after it has been 5 minutes in front of a hair dryer or hot air gun, as you did for the spin

@remcotissink 9 ай бұрын

Wonderfull movies about this little lathe. Bought one my self to learn machining basics. At my first try facing, I found that the tip of the 8mm tool was about 2mm above the centerpoint of piece I was turning. So I wonder if the lathe was designed to be used with 6mm tools ? I have only half a manual.

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 9 ай бұрын

Check out the next video in the series, "First Chips ...". It definitely needs 6mm tools as there just isn't enough clearance for 8mm. After I assembled the lathe I ground a tool from 6mm HSS, and then worked out the right shimming to get it bang-on centre height.

@martinpanev6651 2 жыл бұрын

I cannot wait until the lathe is finished; It would make a wonderful little lathe for small work! Out of curiousity, is it possible to cut gears on a lathe like this, with the milling attachment? And does Evaporust not damage paint?

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 2 жыл бұрын

Gear cutting is something I'm really keen to try out. Evaporust is very safe and I've never seen it do any damage to paint.

@SteamerEdge 2 жыл бұрын

Hi, your videos are really entertaining, very informative and well presented. I have one of these lathes and it has been in constant use over the past 15 years. I wonder if your Machifit QCTP from Banggood will work, or could be adapted to work on your Unimat SL ? I would be very interested to see a video on this when you have your UNIMAT SL up and running. Thanks for the videos cheers Paul

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 2 жыл бұрын

I think the machifit toolpost is too big, and would get in the way. The Unimat SL is quite a bit smaller than the Proxxon, and way smaller than the Chinese lathe.

@roadshowautosports Жыл бұрын

I just got one of those, disassembled it, all but the headstock, to paint it. After painting all parts, while it was drying, i decided to disassemble and clean the bearings and make sure all was good. Watching your video I noticed your bearings and pulley came out very easily, mine didn’t! Everything has to be tapped out! After that, my 3 jaw Chuck is very wobbly. I dropped the Chuck backplate by itself, no Chuck attached, it hit the ground on the corner back of the flange, no damage on the front. It made a small dent. Now I’m debating is the tapping damaged the axle or the fall damaged the back plate! What are your thoughts? Any input very appreciated.

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe Жыл бұрын

Are your bearings in two parts like these, or held together by the balls between the races? It sounds possible that the original bearings might have been replaced with a more traditional ball bearing. It's easy to damage bearings tapping them if you exert force which stresses the balls, but it sounds more likely that something went wrong when replacing the preload springs in the right order. Check out the smallathe videos I linked which cover the mistakes to avoid when rebuilding the Unimat SL spindle. It's impossible to say without looking at it whether you have bent the spindle shaft by dropping it. It seems fairly unlikely though, unless it was attached to something heavy at the time.

@VWKID61 2 жыл бұрын

Try rubbing a balled up piece of aluminum foil on those rust spots. Works better than a brush.

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 2 жыл бұрын

Intriguing. I may gave that a try.

@BillsWorkbench 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for another adventure. How long did you leave the parts in the Evaporust? I have some parts I need to clean up and don't want to risk graying the parts.

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 2 жыл бұрын

For this lathe, the longest I left anything in the evaporust was an hour. For most of them, I didn't soak them at all. I just started rubbing the parts down using the wooden sticks, or scotchbrite soaked in the Evaporust.

@BillsWorkbench 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you both for your replies, I am still on the fence about investing in a lathe. The chip mess is the big unknown. I don't have a dedicated workshop, I am using my den as my workspace.

@rallen7660 2 жыл бұрын

@@BillsWorkbench A lathe is "relatively" clean, as compared to a mill that likes to throw chips all over the room unless confined in an enclosure, like a CNC.

@BillsWorkbench Жыл бұрын

@@rallen7660 well I invested in a Unimat SL. Could not help myself found one on eBay for the right price. Look you. I have already started the overhaul on my channel.

@BillsWorkbench Жыл бұрын

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe Thanks again for your video. I was able to get my headstock back together without much issue. I was able to create a video and would love to hear your thoughts. Can't wait to see what you make in your new workshop.

@208Concepts Жыл бұрын

Here in the states, we have a couple products that would probably clean the paint pretty well. Those are called "Simple Green" and "Purple Power". Might be worth looking into.

@jrkorman 2 жыл бұрын

Rather than a "final" finish of WD-40 for the parts would be to use some very fine oil such as sewing machine or clipper oil. These leave a very thin coat, are quite easy to remove at a later time, and don't have a tendency to form a varnish. Personal choice I guess, I don't like the "feel" of WD-40 finish.

@stevec8064 2 жыл бұрын

WD-40 is terrible at protecting against rust. As Jim says it is much better to use thin oil such as 3 in 1 which is available in spray cans as well as the traditional small cans.

@jrkorman 2 жыл бұрын

@@stevec8064 I would be careful about using "3 in 1" either. I used it on my Unimat when I first bought and cleaned it. Then had to remove a gummy residue later.

@rallen7660 2 жыл бұрын

Very thin oils might work, but any petroleum based product will have a tendency to varnish over time. This used to require motorcycle carbs to be torn down and cleaned during the winter before the spring riding season hit. Silicone protectant, synthetic gun oil, and possibly "cold bluing" the steel parts to form a protective oxide layer is the normal recommendation nowadays. Aluminum forms an oxide layer very quickly. This is what Anodizing is. It can be stripped off with a lye, like Drano drain cleaner, but it's not a easy process for an amateur to do at home. Paint doesn't like to stick to aluminum because of the oxide layer. The only paint that I've had luck with sticking to aluminum is black Krylon Barbecue Grill paint, because it has a slightly acidic primer to it. And for all that's Holy don't use Rustoleum. The nozzles splatter, the paint doesn't "set" until it's baked at high temperature, touching it leaves fingerprints until you "set" it, and a third of it stays in the can, wasted.

@Self_Evident 2 жыл бұрын

"...and this video is already too long." No... no it is not. ;)

@theflyingfool 2 жыл бұрын

Gunk (if it's still available) is a much better cleaner than WD40

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 2 жыл бұрын

How aggressive is it on paint, or other non-metal surfaces? I've compromised on WD40 when I want to remove grease, but don't want to damage the paint too much.

@theflyingfool 2 жыл бұрын

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe TBH I can't remember ever using Gunk on anything with painted surfaces, but it definitely isn't a paint stripper.

@Rustinox 2 жыл бұрын

Rust... I think we all hate it...

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 2 жыл бұрын

.. but I love making it disappear!

@erzincanli Жыл бұрын

I don't understand why you clean every part four times in a row with a different solutions. The parts you cleaned were cleaned better in the rust remover. Because organic chemical in the product can also clean dirt and grime. If you could use deisel in a well ventilated area all the oily gunk and dirt will gone at once very well much better than that. Then you can use dust remover again if you need. Also deisel doesn't remove paint and cleans very well too.

@wolfgangbalu1253 2 жыл бұрын

You made it very complicated. Let the parts in Vaporust for couple of days . Turning the parts with drilling machine and use 1000 wet grind paper. You could safe a lot of time.

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe 2 жыл бұрын

I did explain why I don't do that, in this and the previous video. 1. Soaking in evaporust turns the metal surface dark grey, and dull. I wanted to keep the clean surfaces bright, so I wanted them to stay in evaporust for the shortest time possible. 2. Even very fine wet paper is too rough for critical surfaces. That's why machine rebuilders use hand scrapers and an extremely accurate reference surface when working on sliding ways.