Hi Welcome to the forum. There are always someone on here who has information in electronics etc and sound systems so ask away. I have in the past made special parts like adaptors with different threads and screw cutting bushes to hold parts etc.

David

Welcome Neil, screw cutting is one thing that you will soon need to get the hang of. You do not say what sort of lathe you have ? A small book you will find very useful is the Workshop practice Series, No 3, screw cutting in the lathe. If you have a question there will be someone here who will be able to help. Good Luck.   Noel

The WPS No 34 Lathework a complete course, may also be of interest. For the money any of these books are good value. Noel.

Good grief!  Memories here for me too although I do hail from that part of the world originally. One of my brothers was a design engineer at Caribonum at Turriff. They had a fabulous development workshop with a large Schaublin lathe and a lovely Swiss machinist called Willie Eicher who had a BMW motorad that I was envious of. I think I’d rather have the Schaublin these days!

My youngest brother, I’m pretty sure, did a spell at Turriff water treatment works as a young chemistry student.

Nice to have a Turra loon on board Neil, I’m sure you will enjoy this forum as much as I do.

Welcome to the hobby.

LOTS of knowledge and experience on here.

You might find Stan Bray’s “Basic lathework”, (45 in the Workshop practice series) a useful book.

No matter what the lathe, they all work on the same basic principle.

The technique is to become familiar with your particular machine,, to get the best from it.

So be prepared to “waste” some metal by just turning it down, facing, drilling, and boring etc.

Make your basic mistakes on stuff that doesn’t matter, then start learning the black arts of setting up changewheels for thread cutting. (For smaller sizes, you may be able to survive by using Taps and Dies. – You can gain useful experience by making sliding holders for such things, and have useful tools, as well as experience, afterwards.)

But for some threads you will need to work out the ratio between chuck and leadscrew.

You may find Martin Cleeve’s “Screwcutting in the Lathe” No 3 in the Workshop Practice Series helpful.

A more expensive book, which might help is Brian Wood’s “Gearing of Lathes for Screwcutting”.

You might well find yourself making adaptors with one thread on one end, and another of different size, pitch or form, on the other.

(In the past I have made such things as an adaptor with a 12 x 1 Metric thread on one end and a 1/4 BSP thread on the other).

With a lathe all sorts of combination are possible.

But learn the basics first, especially how to set a tool on centre height, consistently.

Howard

The Unimat3 was not a screw cutting lathe and on the very rare chance you have their attachment for screwcutting most of the published books on screwcutting won’t be a lot of use as it is a completely different system. You are likely to be limited to what is available as taps & dies.

There were a couple of Unimat specific books which would be more relevant than the typical Myford type lathe a lot of the other old books were based on.

Unimat Lathe Projects by Gerald Wingrove, The Book Of The Unimat by Laidlaw-Dickson and possibly Unimat 3 lathe accessories by Bob Loader but depends if you want to make tools are the actual audio items you bought the lathe for

On 11 January 2026 at 13:11 John Haine Said:

How about fitting an els system?

 

It would save having to keep cranking that permanently engaged 1mm pitch lead screw! But would need to be easily disconnected so you could put on a small cut when facing.

As for ctr height the U3’s toolpost is the exact height to be able to put a 6×6 shank insert tool in without having to faff with shims etc and it will be dead on ctr heigh. So not even an excuse to make a tool height gauge. 😂

I’m not sure thread cutting on a Unimat was ever a pleasure as it’s a completely different set up, more like a copy lathe so forget change wheels, setting over the topslide, thread indicators and a lot more in the old books.

As I said the U3 threading attachment is rare and I could not find a decent online image so you will have to make do with the one for the older SL which is the same principle.

The essential thing is to get a grasp of the basics. Having merely mangled some metal, you will have learned something, even if only not to make the same error again. (I learned pretty quickly that whatever cut was put on, reduced the diameter by twice as much!)

By just reducing the diameter of a bit of mild steel, you will learn the effects of speeds, feeds and depths of cut.  In that way, you begin to distinguish between taking a roughing cut and taking a finishing cut.

If you learn by making simple tools, they may not be things of beauty, but will have taught you something and are available for use in the future.

Better to make an error on a bit of ordinary mild steel than an expensive casting from a kit.

You find out how to drill and Tap a hole, so that you then have a tool to make tapping a hole simpler, in the future.

“C’est brusque; mais ca march” as a I think, Peugot said about the simple gearbox.

We all learn something, every day.

Howard

Hi, Neil.

I live in Maud and I know Turriff well. My sister stays in “Turra” and I have many good friends who live locally. I have slightly bigger bits of kit than yourself i.e. Harrison lathe, Bridgeport mill, Denford Mill and Lathe both CNC and heaps of other kit.   Not very active now as my health is a bit ropey but I can still spik a good job as they say in this area.

Alistair.