milling swarf and splashes

Hi all,

just sick of the mess these milling machines make........can't afford one of those all enveloping machine screens even if the room was available.....

I do use pumped coolant a lot, might go the misty route one day but u still have the swarf all over the place......

anyway, have tried a few home made jobbies with no real luck and today was gonna be another messy job.....then it clicked........her indoors was having a clear-out and in her rubbish found a load of large and differing diameter flower pots......

now, these are about 1mm wall polythene type pots not the sort that's thin, hard'ish plastic and splits for England....

so have cut the bottom off to suit the hight of the job and slip them under the cutter head, I did try spiting them the first time but unstable......the only trouble is I'm forced to raise and lower the table at the begining and end of the job..(this job was making slots in channel)....there was enough room for the coolant hose to slip over the edge of the pot and down to the cutter.....I did find that this shield slips along the bed / job easily and so no need to mess with it at all......also, as they stack u can just cut em up to suit the job in hand then store em easily....mine store on a nail along with a few other milling oddity's.....as they are for free it realy doesn't matter if the get damaged.....

only thing is that this has moved the powered table lift job to the top of the to do list.....

I know this won't be suitable for all types of job but anything helps.....

Clogs

Why not just cut the pots so they can be spread open to slip over the cutter/chuck?

Will save having to wind the table up and down.

Ian

yep Ian,

sounds good but the pot's have internal stress's and close up and/or have a twist making them unstable......

clogs

I made a splash guard from acrylic sheet some time ago... with plastic vinyl back piece, neodymium magnets hold it on the table...





Simple but effective.

George.

Hi George, that looks great.......oh well Mk2 on the way.........hahaha......clogs

Nice work George!

Clogs,

Not really sure why you are using flood coolant all the time, a brush & pot full of soluble oil will be good enough for most jobs.

Tony

Clogs

​Have sent reply to your pm, check your mail inbox

George.

Hi Tony......use the coolant because it's there (Bridgeport J head + Myford VMF) and hot chips are no fun if they get away......I also use a full face flip up visor for protection (glasses friendly).......

seems that milling like electric welding it's always on the hotest days.......can't/wont wear overalls in 25 + degrees of heat.........which is most of my summer.......Clogs.......