Unimat 3 ER11 tailstock ram

 First of all I should explain that a tailstock ram is the spindle inside the tailstock that holds any chuck, centre etc. that is being used. On larger lathes these have a tapered bore that chucks, drills, centres etc, slide into and are held fast, on smaller machines such as Unimats they are often threaded. 

I tend to use an ER16 collet chuck in the tailstock when drilling as I find collets to be more accurate than a drill chuck for holding small (<2mm) drills. However, there are times when I want to use my ER16 collet chuck in the headstock rather than the ER25 that I usually use and still be able to drill small holes. So, I've bought myself a replacement tailstock ram, made by GG Tools in Germany and sold through eBay. This is designed to hold ER11 collets, and at the same time I bought a set as part of the package;

The spanner I bought separately, from Chronos, as I didn't have a spare 17mm knocking around.

Here's the new ram, on the right, alongside the original;

And with a 1mm collet fitted;

Fitted to the lathe;

One peculiar aspect of the design is that the threaded nut is M14 x 1mm, which is non-standard for ER11. This does mean that any Unimat 3 chuck can be screwed onto the ram with the nut removed, as seen below;

The above two photos show just how compact the ER11 chuck is.

Another useful accessory which will see a great deal of use.

Paul.