WHat can you make with these things ?

Am curious.

Anybody ever seen one of these things in the flesh ?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/6-In-1-Multi-Metal-Mini-Wood-Lathe-Motorized-Jig-saw-Grinder-Driller-Milling-Set/322027988900

What materials can they realistically cut ?

In a simialr vein....Back some 20-25yrs ago I bought some black and decker minicraft tools: a 'lathe' frame powered by a dremel type drill, a tiny circular saw and a tiny disc sander. About all it was good for was making some bits for my wife's hobby of the time.. dollhouse miniatures. I did successfully turn some 80 tiny wooden balcony balustrades and also make an internal staircase. It'd probably have handled plastics and some thin laminates but I doubt if it could have coped with anything metal. For soemone with patience and a tight budget they'd likely get some fun from it.

I don't know about the knock-offs, but the official Unimat ones are supposed to handle brass and aluminium, especially the full metal ones that use aluminium extrusions.

I think they are mostly used by boat and small-gauge railway modellers who are probably shy of claiming to be model engineers.

My dad used to use a drill chuck on the end of a hoover motor, with a tailstock from a Black and Decker adaptor all screwed to a board, before getting a Unimat lathe for his boat bits.

It would be interesting to see some examples of work done on one of these modular setups.

Neil

I think it would be ok on balsa, foam, and wax. Anything harder could be a challenge.

Given a suitable cutter, they would cut anything, I suppose! Diamond drillor cutter would even cut glass.

BUT, remember a dremel is about 130W and this is just 30W. So less power than the average sewing machine? Dremels will turn at several thousand rpm

Mickey Mouse if he was made of soft soap might be about its limit without overstraining it, I might guess. Here is the maximum handling specs taken directly from the ad:

Max. thickness of cut: hardwood: 4mm, plywood: 7mm, softwood: 18mm, sheet metal: 0.5mm, plexi-glass

I would think the 'maximum' might mean that quite precisely. Does that not answer your original post?