Keeping Lathe Tidy

All discussion about lathes including but not limited to: South Bend, Hardinge, Logan, Monarch, Clausing and other HSM lathes, including imports

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SteveHGraham
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Keeping Lathe Tidy

Post by SteveHGraham »

I'm cleaning out my chip pan. Lots of aluminum chips, plus residual pipe-threading oil. I have a question. What's the best way to manage all this filth? I see people with clean machine tools, and I can't figure out how they do it. I am especially amazed by the people who still have paint in their chip pans.

It occurred to me that I could spread newspapers in the pan before I work and take them up afterward.

I think I use too much lube. I learned most of what I know from two video guys. One gives parts a tiny squirt of WD40 from a spray can, and the other (Darrell Holland) pours it on pretty good. I must take after the second guy.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
SteveM
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Re: Keeping Lathe Tidy

Post by SteveM »

I was thinking of setting up an oil can with cutting fluid and attaching one of those chip brushes to the nozzle so that I have a supply I can apply when and where I need without having to dip the brush.

The more on the work, the less on me and the machine.

Another alternative is to get your kid to clean it. Growing up, it was my job to keep my dad's South Bend 9A clean.

Steve
Russ Hanscom
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Re: Keeping Lathe Tidy

Post by Russ Hanscom »

Well, one way to help a little with the chip tray is to put one of the metal baking sheets with side lips in the bottom. You can then lift out the bulk of the mess in one operation. I get the cookie sheets by getting the wife a new one and taking the old - but they are cheap enough new, or used at a thrift shop.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Keeping Lathe Tidy

Post by SteveHGraham »

I just spent two hours cleaning up the mess from last week's hog-roaster build. I can tell I'm getting old. I'm starting to store things in old jars and coffee cans with hand-written labels on them! And last month I bought a pair of work pants that comes up to my belly button. By 2015, I fully expect to be wearing them at my armpits. If I could just find some short-sleeve plaid shirts...

I think I'm going to start hanging onto newspapers. I may have to fight with my parrots to get them.
Last edited by SteveHGraham on Thu Dec 29, 2011 8:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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swatson144
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Re: Keeping Lathe Tidy

Post by swatson144 »

Russ Hanscom wrote:Well, one way to help a little with the chip tray is to put one of the metal baking sheets with side lips in the bottom. You can then lift out the bulk of the mess in one operation. I get the cookie sheets by getting the wife a new one and taking the old - but they are cheap enough new, or used at a thrift shop.
What Russ say! I bought pans from a local restaurant supply house. 3/4 cookie sheets fit my 12x36 like they were custom made. I Gave a friend one for it rockwell and it fit as well.
pan.JPG
I'd made a splash guard from a treadmill part. It overlaps the pan on the back edge.
splash and pan.JPG
When I run flood coolant I just remove the pan. I'm thinking of buying another and tig weld in a tube to go to the coolant drop. That'd just leave the chips in the pan and the coolant to drain like the pan wasn't there.

Steve
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warmstrong1955
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Re: Keeping Lathe Tidy

Post by warmstrong1955 »

I think there's some folks here.....that are just show-offs.... :lol:

No way I can keep my machinery that clean & pristine.... I use em' all too often. More often than I can clean it that well for sure.

Far as chips & oil in the pan....I use a lot of oil. I don't think you can use too much oil. May have to wear some while you're machinin', but so be it. Advantage.....very little rust. I clean out the major stuff by hand, with gloves, then a bit of work with the shop vac, and that's about it. Most of the oil goes down the drain....something I added soon after I got my first machine...part of a coolant system.(still shiny when I took the pic)

As far as wiped down shiny no chips clean.....not gonna happen with my stuff.

Bill
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Today's solutions are tomorrow's problems.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Keeping Lathe Tidy

Post by SteveHGraham »

Maybe I should wear one of those pans to keep the oil off my shirt.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
SteveM
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Re: Keeping Lathe Tidy

Post by SteveM »

When I bought my sheet pans (in the industry, they are called jelly roll pans, not cookie sheets), the woman asked me how big my oven was. Then I told her I was using it under the lathe.

Seems that people buy them, and then return them when they realize they don't fit a home oven.

Steve
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warmstrong1955
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Re: Keeping Lathe Tidy

Post by warmstrong1955 »

Wish I could remember to wipe the oil of the spindle of my mill before I fire it up after it's been sittin' a bit......I always end up with a horizontal racing stripe across my chest.....

Another hazard of oiling things 'to death'.......

:) Bill
Today's solutions are tomorrow's problems.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Keeping Lathe Tidy

Post by SteveHGraham »

My other big love is cooking, so I know where to get all that stuff. I would put a cot at Gordon Food Service and just live there, if they would let me.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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BadDog
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Re: Keeping Lathe Tidy

Post by BadDog »

My approach is a bit different. 95%+ of my work is fairly minor, not a huge lot of chips produced for a single job. My lathe has a HUGE chip pan, and the way I work, it takes forever (weeks, months) for me to get enough in it to fool with, and then it's a huge mess, or I drop something into it. :(

So I made inserts to fit snugly between the ways. This catches my chips before they hit the main pan below, and I can generally just lift the trays out to dump them easily. There is one very well fitted (on a press brake I made) near the headstock, and it catches most of the mess. The other is longer and closer to the tail stock, really just a flat piece of scrap sheet metal that happened to fit. I almost never have a job that exceeds that top capacity, and cleanup is SO much faster/easier. It also incourages me to cleanup fully after each job, so it's never a big burden.
Russ
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Keeping Lathe Tidy

Post by SteveHGraham »

If I want to make a part one inch in diameter, I generally start with something the size of an umbrella stand, so...lots of chips.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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