Chip Clean Up

I got 2 things that work great. One from EBAY is like the one in post #10, about 15" long, good magnet and cleans itself well. Great for cleaning my fabric way shields. The other is the 30" Harbor Freight floor sweep that is way better at cleaning the floor of chips than I expected and cleans itself well and easy (save the shipping box to empty chips into). I'm all set now!
Aaron

kd4gij said:

Someone on this forum. Made a magnetic pickup tool using a piece copper tubing with a end cap. It had round magnets on a rod to pull up and release the chips.

Here is a video.

Click to expand...

That was Tubalcain or mrpete222, his alternate web ego.

big piles are easy by hand

I made one with a neodymium magnet in a steel holder and an outer aluminum housing. Still need to make a handle for it, but it works pretty good. I need to shave more off the front plate and increase the pullback distance for dumping chips.

Hi Aaron,

I ran into a similar problem when I first tried vacuuming chips off of the accordion style rubber way covers on my mill. The vacuum’s suction is so strong it seals itself off with the way cover. But, I discovered that the hose has a plastic collar that you can turn to expose an opening in the side of the hose and regulate suction pressure. Now I can get it to suck up chips without sucking up the way cover. Mine vac is Ridgid brand. I don’t know if other brands have the same feature or not. Maybe yours does? A vac works a lot better than a magnet on aluminum chips.

Tom

Mostly I use an old paintbrush to sweep chips into the chip pan. Then sweep them into piles and scoop up the piles with a thin ss fried egg spatula (or by hand when the chips are long and ball up).
The ways get wiped down with a paper towel.
A shop vac is used to get in tight spots and when chips are too fine to handle otherwise.
A magnet placed in the bottom of a bread bag is used to pick chips off of the floor mat and cement floor.
When turning cast iron without lube, the shop vac is used to pick up chips right from the cutting tool while turning.

higgite said:

Hi Aaron,

I ran into a similar problem when I first tried vacuuming chips off of the accordion style rubber way covers on my mill. The vacuum’s suction is so strong it seals itself off with the way cover. But, I discovered that the hose has a plastic collar that you can turn to expose an opening in the side of the hose and regulate suction pressure. Now I can get it to suck up chips without sucking up the way cover. Mine vac is Ridgid brand. I don’t know if other brands have the same feature or not. Maybe yours does? A vac works a lot better than a magnet on aluminum chips.

Tom

Click to expand...

For those without a suction bleeder on the shop vac like Tom mentions, try notching the mouth of the nozzle to allow air in and prevent it sealing to the way cover.

I use a combination of all of the above. Just depends on the situation. Long, curlies are retrieved by gloved hands. Heavy chips in big piles get the magnet treatment and nonmagnetic pieces get a quick brushing. The shop vac gets the remains and I notched the nozzle as Tozguy mentioned. (Although it was accidental, it still works great.)

Before I picked up one of the magnets with the on-off switch, I used a heavy magnet with a sock over it. Chips readily stuck to the sock but were easily removed by pulling the sock off the magnet. I never through anything away so I have a large supply of old, worn out socks.

Todays job left 15 pounds of 954 bronze chips in the lathe, naturally a magnet does not work and bronze chips are about the size of grains of sand and fly everywhere.

I put a piece of small flexible hose on the coolant nozzle and hose it down like a senior citizen hosing off his sidewalk then shoveled the mess out of the pan. This machine has a chip pan that slides out like a drawer so it is quite easy.

I've had good luck putting up things that will catch the chips before they fly everywhere . I use cardboard as seen in the pics below. In addition to the rubber mat I have over the ways, I lay painters paper over the rubber way covers. It comes in a 12" roll for a few bucks at Lowes . When i'm done, there's little brushing...just roll up the mess and it sops some of the cutting oil too .

This is the time saver, not having to shop vac nearly as much, and about 90% less cutting fluid everywhere. Roll up the oil sopped, chip covered painters paper and toss it. 2 minutes to set this up cuts my cleanup time in half or better . YMMV

I use neodymium magnets to hold the painter paper and cardboard in place (also shown in the pics). They hold it very well. Here is a link to those magnets https://amzn.com/B01F866W7U

Then I shop vac whatever little bit has gotten by. I also use a floor sweep magnet for steel and tiny shards i cant see...they love to become a splinter ! That magnet is a Hillman 542014 with telescoping handle. It's about 13" wide, small, light, it's decent but I think there's probably better ones available.
I have seen others that have cheap shower curtains strung up...seems to work well.