Ways protection

I saw a couple people using leather for covering lathe ways so while I don't use it on my small lathe I do use it on my MF miller. Not necessarily to protect the ways from damage but more to keep the small chips and stuff from getting into hard to reach places. I don't know how chips can find their way into places I can't get to but they can!!

Anyway, I made a small flap of garment leather from an old leather jacket (not a biker weight jacket, more a dress jacket) and hold it on with small magnets. It works well at keeping the chips off the slides but after a while gets pretty saturated with oils and stuff so goes kind of limp. On my shaper I use a similar flap except out of a heavy (20 mil) clear vinyl. It also works well but after several years starts to go stiff from contact with the way and cutting oils. It takes a bit of fiddling to find a length that works for you to give enough slack for movement but doesn't bunch up so much that you lose travel. And, different weights of material will behave differently.

I'm torn at this stage whether the protectors/shields are more or less effort than just keeping up with the cleaning but I do think they help control the chips. And with brass those really tiny flakes seem to hang around forever regardless of how much I try to vacuum them off. Perhaps a well-fitting set of way wipers would be the better thing to invest in, but they still wouldn't keep the little bits from flying into half nuts, lead screws, etc.

-frank
 
I suppose if the bed is made from a pretty soft material, it might be worth it, but I never use anything unless I am turning cast iron. That dust gets everywhere.
 
This was a minor interest of mine in an effort to keep the machine free of debris as much as possible and typical of me in that I like to keep my tools and such looking like new where possible. Then I worked with brass for the first time. The lathe was recently purchased and now starting to be used more. I didn't cut much brass during a trial, but it was everywhere I didn't want it to be. I didn't like the prices I was seeing for something so simple and uninspiring, so I recalled the AC window seal bellows I had seen some years back and found it at Lowe's in abundance compared to specifically branded options, $17 for two pieces. The only down side is that it doesn't come in black.

It can be painted, but you may want to allow it to sit in its relaxed state when you do, or else the paint will crack at the apexes more, or less. Each end has double sided tape so it was easy to extend the length and attach it to the carriage. I decided to leave the end near the head stock loose for easy inspection, it stays in place with a little weight, or magnet attached. I'm going to drape a leather square over the tool post to protect the cross slide, as I will be working with a lot more brass shortly. Oh, I have some plexiglass squares to use as a shield on both the lathe and the mill.

DSC08848.JPG

DSC08849.JPG
 
Might be me, but that set up seems like it would practically be impossible to keep clean. Hope it works out for you. I just clean my lathe after use with a chip brush and vacuum cleaner, all those crevices look hard to keep looking nice. I have a mini lathe and a 10 x 22 lathe. Neither have a bellows. Clean them and oil them, that's it. I even replaced my mill Z bellows with a thin rubber sheet because it was impossible to clean.
 
WobblyHand said:
Might be me, but that set up seems like it would practically be impossible to keep clean. Hope it works out for you. I just clean my lathe after use with a chip brush and vacuum cleaner, all those crevices look hard to keep looking nice. I have a mini lathe and a 10 x 22 lathe. Neither have a bellows. Clean them and oil them, that's it. I even replaced my mill Z bellows with a thin rubber sheet because it was impossible to clean.
Click to expand...

Works perfectly after being cut to fit, the same as any of the other bellows arrangements I've seen of similar fashion. Keeping the ways lubed is an important reason for the effort, as fine chips mixing with oil makes it messier to clean up, especially with a contaminated brush, which takes some and leaves some at the same time. The dust seen on the cross slide and in the slide groove is brass after a general cleanup, I don't have that problem with steel and aluminum.

Now all I do is move the saddle away from the chuck and use a 2" paint brush to sweep the chips off the cover toward the backside, where they drop down into the old baking pan just underneath. The ways remain chip free. Yep, I just went back and checked. The piece in place right now is from the package, I don't see where the difficulty in keeping it clean would be from your view.

I use a small shop vac also, but as I mentioned, I just started working with brass and it does not play well. The vac is no match for it in the tight areas where it holds on and then there's the fine dust it tends to emit. The more I protect and shield, the easier the cleanup.
 
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maticulus said:
This was a minor interest of mine in an effort to keep the machine free of debris as much as possible and typical of me in that I like to keep my tools and such looking like new where possible. Then I worked with brass for the first time. The lathe was recently purchased and now starting to be used more. I didn't cut much brass during a trial, but it was everywhere I didn't want it to be. I didn't like the prices I was seeing for something so simple and uninspiring, so I recalled the AC window seal bellows I had seen some years back and found it at Lowe's in abundance compared to specifically branded options, $17 for two pieces. The only down side is that it doesn't come in black.

It can be painted, but you may want to allow it to sit in its relaxed state when you do, or else the paint will crack at the apexes more, or less. Each end has double sided tape so it was easy to extend the length and attach it to the carriage. I decided to leave the end near the head stock loose for easy inspection, it stays in place with a little weight, or magnet attached. I'm going to drape a leather square over the tool post to protect the cross slide, as I will be working with a lot more brass shortly. Oh, I have some plexiglass squares to use as a shield on both the lathe and the mill.

View attachment 453164

View attachment 453165
Click to expand...
The A/C bellows might not be very compatible with cutting fluids. I used these from McMaster to replace the floppy rubber bellows on my Mini-Mill.

Since I had extra material left over, I was considering using it on my 7 x 16 Mini-Lathe (ala Quinn), but decided to keep my Lexan solution:

Swarf Shield Rubber Seal.jpg
Flat piece is attached to the carriage using the traveling rest mounting holes. I can use longer pieces if I'm working farther from the headstock.

The bent piece is notched for the Vee (and backsplash attaching screw) and is held on the headstock with embedded magnets:

Swarf Shield Magnets.jpg
The black rubber lip that seals between the two sheets was a "gift" from the bellows I took off the mill.

This works to keep the bulk of chips from between the headstock and carriage, and is easy to take off when changing chucks or if I need to use the traveling rest.
 
I harvest the low hanging fruit...

Did I tell you I love your way?

 
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