[Zabco]

Oh wow, cool. I have a Unimat SL also. Was the first power tool I ever bought. Bought mine a couple of years before you and got it through Montgomery Wards (remember them?). Was right around $200 if I remember correctly. Heck of a lot of money back then for a kid in high school. Also learned real quick that as a rule of thumb however much the machine costs, you need to spend at least that much more to get tooling you need to use it. I also have a Sherline mill and lathe both equipped for CNC. Only used it on lathe once but use on mill quite often. Today I primarily just use the Unimat as a drill press for tiny holes. Love that little machine, carried it with me all over the country.

I have made several u-bolt benders similar to what you are now doing and damaging the threads was never really a problem. Didn't have an arbor press to push the plunger into the die so used to use a bmfh. This often led to bent/broken plungers. The biggest issue I had was getting the legs of the u-bolt to end up the same length. Today I make up/use benders that hold one leg in position and then bend the bolt around a pivot of the size needed.