Cleaning Lathe after use

+ 1 for using magnets . Collects most of it and if careful, you can remove the magnet from the plastic bag and the dust falls into your preferred receptacle-

Some really excellent ideas and solutions; I'll be trying out some of these in the future. I've actually got some Hard drive magnets sat on the bench, I'll pop those into some poly bags.

Thanks for the interesting replies.

I use magnets for collecting swarf in the tray of my hobber. I t stops th fine stuff from clogging up the oil pump thought I've just bought some paint filters to use when hobbing cast iron.

The only big drawback from using magnets is that they tend to magnetise all your tools, which in turn causes the swarf to stick to them and that gets very annoying. I have to have de-magnetising sessions every now and again.

I prefer dry ways when cutting cast iron. Paper covered with tinfoil (Aluminium) works in some areas, but only if the saddle pushes it along the bed both to and from the headstock. Actually the dust will still go everywhere, such as between the saddle and the tailstock, leadscrew, top and crosslide. And op's nose and lungs, etc.

No oil. Oil plus iron powder equals a grinding paste.

If it is going to be a longish session of iron, then rub dry powdered graphite on the ways with a fresh cotton waste.

A vacuum nozzle located under the end of the lathe tool cutting edge will capture some of the iron chips. The next line of defense is a atrong magnet in a plastic bag, but sadly, I have found that strong magnets produce strongly magnetized iron chips, which then attach themselves to every metal surface and are even more difficult to remove.

Needless to say it, but I avoid iron when possible. Old-timers tell me they just wiped dry and replaced their equipment as needed. Not an option for most of us.

Paul

Am I alone in suffering a different problem after machining CI ?
SWMBO complains about the rust "stains" left in the (utility room) sink next morning after having washed my hands (myself that is) the previous night despite my flushing with copious amounts of water (the sink that is).
I've now been given a dedicated plastic bowl to use for hand washing and instructions to empty contents into outside drain.
Forced to concede there's justifcation for her complaint; it happened with stainless steel sink in last house and with acrylic sink now. The minute particles of iron lodge in the minute surface scratches and presumably swell when rusted overnight to jam themselves into the tiny gaps. Other than divorce, disposable gloves or washing my hands with Jenolite, none of which is desirable - I dutifully comply with the enforced regime.

Now why didn't I think of that! My lathe is normally kept oily, not a good idea in this case.

One thing though, I believe felt wipers used to keep swarf from under the saddle should be kept well oiled and are much less effective dry. Is that true?

My next job is Cast Iron and I'm dreading it because the mess takes so long to clean up. Lots of good ideas to try from this thread so perhaps it won't be quite so awful...

Dave

I have a swarf guard made from plastic DPC attached to the front of my Myford saddle, it overhangs front and back and sheds debris clear of the ways. Most of the ferrous particles can be lifted off with my magnetic swarf stick without any ill effects.

The stick is great for lifting swarf from the tray. Even when machining non ferrous material there is always a residue of steel particles, sufficient to get caught up and lift other material. Much kinder to your hands.

Adrian.

There seems to be a rather bizarre aversion to cast iron? I assume that the majority of model engines involve machining cast iron at some point. My traction engines certainly do, the majority of castings are cast iron. I must have machined several hundred kilograms of cast iron over the years both in casting form and extruded bar. Machine dry and it's no real problem to clean up, just a brush and dustpan. I don't worry about swarf getting under the wipers. On my lathe the bed wipers are hard plastic, so I suspect they're rather more effective than felt wipers. Cast iron is known to work well against itself, and other materials, so why would it particularly wear the slideways?

The biggest pain is getting hands, face and nostrils black, which can make a mess of the sink, and hankies. I find green Swarfega cleans the hands just fine. I've never had a problem with sinks corroding, although I have no domestic manager to keep an eye on these sort of things.

Of course there's one solution to the problem, don't use the lathe then you won't have to clean it, or wear it out!

Andrew

I too wonder why cast iron is thought to be harmful to lathe slides, even if particles of iron get trapped in felt wipers all they are going to do is lightly rub along the surface. I agree that its messy to machine though.

I know/knew of two different machine operators that avoided turning brass an account that the very fine swarf would 'wreck' a lathe if it got in the dovetail slides! My thoughts are that it could only get in if there was a gap in the first place.

Ian P

Hello Fowlers Fury,

No, you are not alone.
I also wash my hands in a white porcelain tank used for domestic purposes by my wife who demands absolute whiteness.
For a while I also had the problem of very small rust spots on the bottom of the tank and so I had to use a separate bowl to wash my hands and then pour directly into the sewer without going through the tank ...
Until I remembered having seen - and I was intrigued - an old turner in a workshop washing his hands with swarfega without using water and finishing cleaning with paper towels.
I tried using swarfega as I had seen it for a long time and after carefully wiping my hands with the paper towel I finished washing with soap and water.
In the swarfega detergent and the paper towel were the metal scraps. At least most of them.

And for better guarantee of result try to empty the water that tends to stay in the bottom of the tank.

Regards
Dias Costa

I must be a bit different, I love machining cast iron. Big sense of relief when the skin is off. I'm normally fairly dirty so that doesn't bother me ( so says my wife ).

Look closely at what's in cast-iron and it has an unfriendly component, or at least potentially so. It's a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Four things present in cast-iron

• Iron, which is soft.
• Graphite, which is a lubricant.
• Iron Carbides, which are very abrasive. They're what make tool steel hard when heat treated.
• Slag, which is hard

Some cast-irons are alloyed to be harder (contain more carbides) than others, for example to increase wear resistance. Others are alloyed for softness, but we rarely know what we're working with. In manufacture Cast-iron varies between random mixtures used to cast weights and drain covers and a carefully formulated high-end engineering material.

Cast iron castings are famous for occasionally having an extremely hard outer skin. This is partly a mix of sand and slag but mainly is caused by the formation of surface carbides when the mould cools too quickly. A foundry might deliberately make parts of a casting glass-hard by force cooling the mould, but the same can happen by accident...

Carbide particles from chilled cast iron are murder on soft metals like mild steel, so it's best to clean up.

Dave

If you are taking a first cut on an iron casting, make it deep, so as to remove the outer skin. This may well be hard, having been chilled, so needs to be removed in one hit.

(A whole set of inserted tooth milling cutters on a transfer line were wrecked when a batch of castings, that had been inadvertently chilled, were loaded in). Imagine the frustration of knowing that every pair of cutters, on every stage, is going to be smashed, and there is no means of stopping or unloading!

Inserting chills into moulds is a way of hardening cast iron locally; often used for cast camshafts.

Howard

Make bread before washing your hands

Neil

I was a sparky in the tool room for three years, our workshop was next to the spotting presses and after a 10 hour shift my hair was filthy. Cutting oil was used on machines mostly to wash the swarf into the conveyors to the swarf bins. Unfortunately we often had to get at the parts that didn't get cleaned so getting plastered in oil and CI swarf was a fact of life. The press shop was another place that was particularly filthy, as there was a lot of air operated equipment the exhaust air was oil laden and so everything in the press shop is oily, lubrication of the steel panels also spread a lot of oil around, an interesting place to work but filthy.

Mike

Or to put it another way - make bread, no need to wash hands, don't eat the bread! 😂😊😂

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 10/08/2018 18:40:13