chip control

So thought I would start a thread , so people can share ideas on what they do, to keep flying swarf/ chips contained to a small work area, and not everywhere in the shop and shelves etc.

So here is a couple from recently. Just got a used ZX45, and used a fruit box to contain the chips while drilling and milling parts for the mounting of the DRO.

Another is an icecream container with a hole cut out the bottom to fit over the ER40 collet holder on the cnc wood router. I used this to mill the inside out of a piston for a 2.5cc glow plug engine. It also uses a vacuum cleaner and a 3d printed arrangement to help vacuum up the chips with a air mist to help move the chips away from the cutter with a very small amount of rice bran oil as a lube.

after milling,

cleaned up

The wood router can only take small cuts with the 3mm end mill and R.5 corner radius cutter. I only have the counter bore for the trim turn reference in the piston and of course the reamed hole with the clip grooves completed. I let the little 3 flute end mill take out all the inside material. Takes about 10 mins per piston. Once set up, I can have a cup of tea. Clean up after is minimal as well.

Neil

Now that's thinking outside the box ! Or is it inside the box ?

Nice simple idea though , I must try it when i set up my face mill next time as it throws chips everywhere and makes an awful mess and I could also use something like this on my little cnc engraver .