Workshop tidyness

Hi

I don't manage to get into the workshop every evening let alone every weekend so the lathe and miller are left un-used at times.

Last weekend I got out into the workshop but had some woodwork project to do for SWMBO. After a while I started to notice fine dust build up on some surfaces.

So here is the question, should I cover the lathe and miller when not in use and if so what with? I use an duvet cover to cover my motorbike and this stops most of the dust. would similar be suitable for the lathe and miller ? or should I not worry.

Thanks

Dave

I keep my Mill, Drill, Lathe covered up with a pair of old curtains. (Natural fibre .. Cotton/Wool etc) Keeps the condensation off in winter as well.

Dave

Hi,

I would not advocate the use of any fabric materials to cover bare steel worksurfaces as they absorb and hold moisture, cotton especially. Cotton is used for clothing as it absorbs moisture and holds it very well. All the lathe manufacturers used to supply covers as an extra, Myford and Boxford used transparent vinyl. Earlier ones used a coated fabric.

I use clear vinyl sheet shaped and sewn to suit each machine. I also leave a couple of large bags of silica gel on each machine (on painted surfacea) and have a magnetic strip around the bottom of the cover to create a dry mini environment around each machine. Keep the ways oiled and I have no problems with rust in an unheated detached garage.

In severe weather I have heaters made from a couple of 40W incandescent bulbs on a base connected in series to provide a gentle heat under each machine.

Regards

T

Edited By Terryd on 01/12/2012 11:52:22

Silica Gel, unless used in a SEALED container is no more use than a wet bun ! Leaving the silica gel in the open air just means it is sucking up moisture until it is saturated and no longer any use.

It is normally used in a closed environment and this means sealed in with the object which it is being asked to preserve. Used in long term storage of delicate instruments and optical equipment.

Further to this is that a sealed containment filled with Nitrogen would be a better condition as it is inert and nothing can live in it.

Revival of silica gel means a long cook up in an oven and sometimes the silica gel has a marker colour added to tell when it is dry or saturated. Then storage of the silica gel in a sealed container makes it usefull for removal of moisture from items placed in with it.

Using it as a general moisture/water reducing agent in the open air totally defeats the purpose of the silica gel.

I have this problem of wood dust when I work my saw bench and mitigate the effects by covering each machine with one of the plastic sheets you can buy from B & Q for decorating purposes, they are light and large and fold small when not needed.

Make sure you take it outside to shake it out as the dust will just settle back if you dont.

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 01/12/2012 12:11:15

I keep my milling machine covered with a barbecue cover bought from a garden centre. It has a plasticised inner surface that has started to break up and shed after about five years. Other than the little plastic flakes I heve never seen dirt or rust on the machine. Swarf is a different matter. Perhaps it is time for a new one. The Christmas list, possibly.

The lathe is protected by a Myford plastic cover but again this ages and starts to become stiff, or less flexible than a new one. I guess that it will eventually become brittle.

The workshop is a dry garage and I keep both the lathe and milling machine oiled, never dry. The adjacent garage, which is connected by a 6 foot wide opening, houses motorcycles. Every so often one is put back wet. I do not consider rust a problem, machine tools or bikes, but I don't ignore it.

JA

NOT plastic - it sweats. If mysford sold such things it must have been for industrial users assuming heated buildings with daily use and oiling.

Cotton sheets or new cloth painters dust sheets. It is because tehy absorb moisture that they work beter than plastic. A few bamboo poles or string will keep it off the unpainted surfaces.

We are about to enter a high risk few days as all the machines are frozen and a wet warm front is coming in to produce buckets of condensation. That is the time to apply the heaters not when it is going from warm to cold so save money on the falling thermometer and double your heat input on the rise.

I cover the lathe and miller with a couple of old towels (Bath sheets) and put a low wattage tubular heater under them. Its a very cold unheated and drafty garage in the far north of Scotland but have had no problems in the six years we have been here.

Lovely,

Just right to keep a nice moist environment around the machine with its absorbed moisture. Better use plenty of oil. You stick to cotton, I'll keep using my vinyl which forms a complete barrier against moisture.

Myford sold their covers to hobbyists as well.

Bazyle,

My covers keep an enclosed environment around the machine as they use magnetic strips. Silica gel can be microwaved in a few minutes to dry it out.

Regards

T

You're worried about dust? Look what I've got to sort out after our flood scare earlier this week! And only a week after a good tidy up too.

Neil

P.S. I use sheepskins to guard my tools, dressed witha combination of goosegrease, lanolin and whale oil it works a treat

When I was in the UK I kept a couple of buckets of rock salt around the workshop to absorb moisture from the air. It helped noticeably but wasn't a complete solution. You should site them away from your machines.

In the end I resorted to Duck Oil, which brings it's own set of problems.

I'm shivering now, thinking about that damp cold workshop first thing in a morning...hands going numb as soon as you touch a handwheel on a machine...

Damp cold workshop? what's that ?

28 degrees in mine yesterday, uninsulated and must be 20 tonnes of machinery and steel stock.

John S.

Are you a motorcycle engineer John ? your name rings a bell

Hello John,

At 28 degrees I'm not sure if your roasting in Celsius or freezing in Fahrenheit.

Doug

Degree C

Just been in the shop to sort a motor out and it's bloody freezing, looked at the thermometer and it's 15 degrees C

Good job it was only a small job

I'm not sure what temperatures are in my workshop during summer - in August it's often 50C outside.
It's brass monkeys right now though, we live halfway up a mountain on a little farm and the climate follows it's own rules. And being Spanish rules, there aren't any

Thankfully my wife is a tolerant sort and I have an indoor gunsmithing area organised. I suppose it's a step up from me cleaning pre-unit Triumph crankcases in the sink and rebuilding Land Rover engines in the 'dining room'

Siddley, does the name Len Bull ring any bells with you? A very good friend of mine who I last heard of in Denver in the US. A full time GunSmith and like you seems to be able to turn his hand to anything. In fact his latest is to make 2/3 scale WW1 airplanes. The last one was Fiesler Storch, a bit more modern. Unfortunately I have not had contact with him for a while.

He was good at re-barreling Winchester underlevers to more modern low pressure calibres. he also made replica Black Powder pistols and always put, 'Fecit. L G Bull' around the muzzle of his guns.

Clive

Hi Neil,

If you think that is a problem, after the conflagration that was my garage workshop the first great Loss Adjuster surveyed upon the scene and liked it not. "We have wondrous power, will demolish, clear the site and rebuild". Then a second Lord Loss Adjuster frowned and with great wisdom sayeth "no need to demolish, fear not we can repair". I said "but floor of concrete is damaged", Adjuster 2 looked down on me fondly and said "fear not O little one, I know best".

Two years have since passed, still problems with patched floor, friable concrete and negative camber from door and there was great wailing and gnashing of teeth (from mke). Lo enter Loss Adjuster 3 to survey the chaos. When the scales fell from his eyes he saw the devastation "dear oh dear what a mess, but our brother adjusters one and two are no longer with us, worry not we will rip up the old floor and re-lay the concrete to it's former glory - it will be a wondrous sight to behold".

So now they will deliver unto us a wondrous storage unit in which to keep safe the treasures of my workshop and leave me bereft of workshop for another 6 weeks "Hmmph" said I unto the Main Man.

And you're worried about a drop of water and dust!

Best regards

resignedly yours

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 01/12/2012 17:31:43

I'm worried more about loss adjusters now Your tale of woe seems unending, why don't you give in and take up macrame or goldfish breeding?

The problem with flooding is not the water - it's the poo

Though we didn't flood we have had a messy drive for the last several days waiting for the water tio go down, but it hasn't unblocked. An hour or two ago the chaps sent by ST came round, took pictures of things moving in mysterious ways on the face of the waters with an iPhone and asked if I had tried rodding it. Yes indeed, between both covers on the drive and 14m right out to the main and I could find no blockage.

The main man got six feet of rod with the disc on the end, pumped it back an forth like a maniac, and it shifted in twenty seconds flat! He hosed everything down and took pictures of the marginally less unpleasant devastation and departed a happy man.

At least it didn't get under our floorboards, likeat least one neighbour

It was a different tale ten years ago when we were blocked for five days over Christmas! That time the link into the main sewer had collapsed due to Sky putting in a cable over the top (several other houses had been affected too before). We had a team of four or five working on it for three days in really cold weather over the holidays digging up the road - I just hope they got plenty of overtime.

Neil

For the last year I have been using a dehumidifier (domestic size) in the workshop. The output is astonishing and very variable - occasionally fills up in a day, other times takes a week. We live some 20 feet from the sea, so humidity is always high but the variation is obviously huge. I have a thermallly controlled background heater (57 degs) and I get very little rusting in a 20' x 10' quite well insulated space.

Rgds

Bill

I'll ask some of my gunny mates in the US Clive. I've got an 1866 Winchester lever action ( not an original, made by Uberti )
I'd love to make a revolver, it's one hell of a task though. I'm not sure it would be possible without a shaper.
I take my hat off to the old school gunsmiths, really skilled guys. I just picked stuff up as I went along and was lucky enough to have a couple of mentors - one who worked for Purdey and another who was a foul mouthed rough as hell machinist who came from the old school ( back when you were expected to be able to file a flat surface before you were ever let anywhere near a machine tool )
They are the guys I respect. Brought up in a hard school when benchwork was the fundamental skill.