Made by Maier & Company in Austria and introduced in late 1953, the 1.42" centre height by 5" (later 6.75") between centres Emco "Unimat" was the first of the firm's incredibly popular range of small, multi-purpose machine tools. Although tiny, it was perfectly capable of decent work, available with a wide range of accessories and was light enough to be lifted on and off the workbench with one (strong) hand. The original model stayed in production until 1977, with a run of around 300,000 examples, at which point it was replaced by the Unimat 3, an entirely conventional-looking lathe and one not nearly as adaptable to so many different uses.