What do you use on the mill to stop steel chips going everywhere

As i have been doing a fair bit of steel machining, especially with my 4 bit facing tool, i was wondering what you used to stop the small steels chips going all over the workshop?

You could go the whole hog and build a screen like this.

Or perhaps just use the shop-vac strategically placed.

For a slightly simpler type of screen, have a look at the one I did for my WM14 *** Mill Screen ***

John

Edited By Journeyman on 23/03/2023 11:23:33

My set up is not as sophisticated as John's, just some temporary sheet metal guards and a broom.

Magnetic base with a bit of sheetmetal such as an old biscuit tin lid attached can be handy. Move it around to where it is needed most.

I use a couple of old cardboard boxes, one each end of the table, they catch most of it and Henry the Hoover gets to suck up the bits that escape the boxes.

Pieces of card folded and weighed-down with scrap.

Phil

I don't bother, just sweep the floor afterwards as part of the post machining clean up.

Andrew

Mag base with some rigid plastic sheet with a small overhang at the top gives flexibility. I just aim to keep the chips away from the operator's direction to reduce the area to be cleaned up.

Martin C

+1 for Andrews broom with considerable assistance from an industrial version of Henry.

The mister provides a low power air blow when needed to keep the chips out of the cut and, occasionally, oil when needed. I do make an effort to keep chips brushed off they work and onto the table during the job, pausing as appropriate. Frequent wielding of the vacuum cleaner to pick chips off the table helps a lot.

I have got an industrial "flexible" shielding system that magnetically mounts to the Bridgeport table but pretty much never use it as it gets in the way so much during set up. Table mount systems may make sense when doing repetition work so no set-up needed after getting things right on the first two or three. But thats not what we do.

The only shield totally worth having is something effective at the back of the machine so chips don't disappear behind.

Bench mill users might do well with fold out wings connected to the back shield to keep chips on the bench close to the machine. Two or three folds probably best so they don't close off useful fast space when the machine isn't being used.

Clive

Vacuum for me on the manual mill combined with trying to feed in a direction that sees the swarf going behind the machine, the insert facemills are as you say the most likely to throw stuff about.

The CNC has a "Trough" around the table that does a good job catching 99.9% of the swarf from standard cutters and is not too restrictive though you don't need to get at or see the work so much on that

Ditto. Works well.

regards

To be honest thats what i uused last night

Vac up after machining I did try the shield that came with the machine but it just gets in the way I found that after hitting it on a long cut in the x axis. I must make a couple of boards to cover the slots which would aid easier clean up

Greetings Warco used to sell a simple perspex shield, with a magnetic base and a flexible stand that works well for me. Not sure if they are still available.

Regards

Brian B

Arceurtrade sell swarf shields with magnetic attachment. Dave W

Run with a good flow of suds will tend to keep the bits under control. Noel.

Those cheap tv stands which fit on the back are easily made into mill guards.

Usually my torso...

Unless I'm cutting very aggressively and getting blue/glowing chips, then it's inevitably my face/forearms/the bit of my neck which isn't covered by the collar of my overalls/any other bare skin.

I tend to sweep up what I can afterwards into a big tub, then periodically will lift the duck-boards and shovel up all the remaining chips into the tub just before doing a run to EMR to weigh in scrap.