ways protector for my mini lathe

Some while ago, I looked for and bought some 'accordion' strip to cover my mini lathe ways. It has never been satisfactory because it is too stiff and too light so it will not stretch / compress enough, whatever length I choose for it. It just rides up and the chuck hits it.

I have read that some people are over the moon with what they have bought and I need to source 'what they're having'. There's a lot of stuff available from China at a reasonable price but, from the images, it seems to be the same woven structure that I have already. If it is a bit flimsy, that doesn't matter as I can replace it every so often.

I'm sure some ME members must have the right stuff. Where did you all get it?

Cheers

Andrew

I have tried a lot of stuff on my lathes.

On my mini lathe I use some old (new once are to stiff) jeans cloth bolted to the carriage and magnets on the head stock.

On my bigger lathe I have a piece of wood under the chuck mounted to the carriage using magnets. The cross slide is also covered by jeans bolted to the cross slide on one side and magnets on the other side.

The equivalent on my Myford vertical mill is just a sheet of butyl-rubber pond-liner, an offcut from making the pond.

It's held by aluminium strips and screws using the tapped holes that presumably once held the original shields. (The machine is second-hand.)

My CNC mill came with concertina way covers. None of my manual machines have way covers and I see no point in fitting them. Just something else to get in the way.

Andrew

I'm with Andrew my mainly used machines the WM280 and X3 don't have any covers and I don't feel the need for them, teh SX2.7 has one on the column and it make sit harder when cleaning down and ha shad to be removed a couple of times to fit large items items. CNC came with metal sliding covers but they don't get much swarf on them

Link to a Youtube video on Blondihahacks showing how to add way covers to a lathe.

**LINK**

Arceurotrade concertina covers.

I just have a length of plastic DPC material on my WM250. It just bows up a bit if working very close to the headstock. Makes it a little easier cleaning up and stops most of the swarf getting under the saddle.

The bolts also serve to prevent swarf getting into the threaded holes for the travelling steady.

John

That's basically what I've ended up with - a short length of the concertina on the cross-slide. It's always in the best place to catch most ofd the swarf. I reckon it's definitely better than nothing so I'll stick with it.

As always, I appreciate the various views that ME always gives me.

Andrew

PS you can't even put multiple quotes (it seems) on a post. Another drop-off. I'm amazed that ME members, of all people, aren't constantly bleating about the inadequacies of the forum mechanism. In a 'mechanical' context, they are all keen on making improvements but they are very conservative when it comes to software.