That’s some sharp machinery you’ve got there Raphael, assuming you made use of them for that awesome urdan dozer blade ? Here’s my Proxxon mill
Not much really but it does what I need it to.
Not much really but it does what I need it to.
1 Like
Thanks Sean, I do model engineering also and mainly restorations of old precision machines. Yes I used all my machine to help in scratch building also in terms of model kits. Proxxon is very good and as long as it serves what you need then thats all that is important. I still have so many precision tools I acquired over the years and it seems like I still need more. I’m still planning to get a Bridgeport Milling machine at some point.
Some more of my machine Sean.
My Cowells ME 90
I fully restored this from the ground up with full accuracy along the bed, spindle and tailstock.
My other Unimat 3 with Full Milling column attached
My other stand alone Unimat 3 Milling machine
My Modified Unimat 3 with a full custom digital DRO that I made.
Indeed, it’s a PITA on top of which I’m really just a self-taught machinist. I’m sure that I probably struggle with jobs that a proficient machinist could do in his sleep.
For instance, figuring out that long tapers are not normally setup according to angle measurements was an epiphany… LOL!
I’ve considered making a similar tailstock offset tool many times in past, but what’s really kept me from doing it has been the ready availability of AM turned gun barrels. I can’t remember the last time I had to turn a barrel that I couldn’t find commercially available (probably back in the early '90s when I turned a barrel for a Tamiya Panther G build).
With model tank gun barrels, I use my lathe mostly to clean up and finish kit barrels, and for tooling those, I’m almost always just using files and / or sandpaper on tapered areas and straight cuts on regular cylindrical areas.
Men , you have me searching the Micro Mark catalog for model machinery. It’s a low probability right now that I’m going to buy any but you’ve rekindled my interest in these items. With my workload and free time ratio, I don’t know if I we’ll get around to using any of it. I’ve always wanted a Dremel drill press stand, and I’ve had one for about three years but I’ve never had it out of the box. If I go back into working on brass railroad locomotives and rolling stock, I’ll probably wear it out.
As a kid I had the Mattel machine shop Gizmo tool thingy. I could have sworn that I still had it about 25 years ago, but I have not dug it out of any of my boxes. Course I still have some boxes that are taped up from when I started moving about 20 years ago. I’d love to find the thing, and I’m sure it would come in handy for some of my minor projects. If it still works LOL.
Fred, if or when you get serious about shopping around for either a lathe or milling machine, start another thread and solicit some advice and lessons learned from the community.
I got my Unimat 3 lathe and milling machine back in the eighties, and I know that I would do a lot of things differently now if I was shopping again for my own shop.