How do You Clean Out Your Lathe Chip Tray?

These magnets are so strong they will affect a pace maker. Could be harmful to ones health, just sayin
 
When I bought my lathe it came with a a chip tray that had a hole at one end and a threaded socket with a plug in it. I hooked up a drain hose to a 20L container with a mesh strainer fitted. It all worked very well until I discovered the water soluble oil I was using went off and became rancid.

So I gave that idea away and now use a hand sprayer filled with MX3 Inox. this is an excellent cutting fluid for all metals, including Al and SS. Plus it protects the lathe and tools from corrosion.
 
over cleaning a chip tray? mine is rusty and i use mostly "steel" or unknown ferrous metals so the chips are little buggers because if i let them get long they go straight to your hand no mater what so the magnet sounds good and get an east-west magnet they can pick up alum and other metals without hurting your pacemaker but they are hard to find...
 
Downunder Bob said:
When I bought my lathe it came with a a chip tray that had a hole at one end and a threaded socket with a plug in it. I hooked up a drain hose to a 20L container with a mesh strainer fitted. It all worked very well until I discovered the water soluble oil I was using went off and became rancid.

So I gave that idea away and now use a hand sprayer filled with MX3 Inox. this is an excellent cutting fluid for all metals, including Al and SS. Plus it protects the lathe and tools from corrosion.
Click to expand...

Another vote for misting or brush on cutting oil/lubricant. One of the worst jobs at work was getting tapped to clean out the machine coolant tanks. They were always nasty smelling and full of swarf that was small enough to slip through the drain systems into the sump. Since I don't use a coolant system there is very little in the chip pan other than the swarf itself.

For large piles of swarf I use a homemade chip hook something like this:


For the smaller stuff I use a small piece of 16 gauge 316 stainless and scrape it over the edge of the chip tray into a 5 gallon bucket. The larger lathe has plenty of room under the bed to reach to the back of the pan. The smaller one has a pan that will slide out for cleaning. I use the same methods for both machines.

Here's a picture of each of the machines with the scrapers in the chip pan. Note the stainless scrapers are near the tailstock end of the machines. The 5 gallon bucket is on the floor under the larger machine. I usually wait until I have at least a couple buckets full before I take them over to the recycle center. Originally I filled a 30 gallon barrel then hauled it over. That was fine until they started went to a larger steel dumpster. It was a real PITA to attempt to lift the barrel 6' up to tip it over the edge.
 

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Wonder is these would work? The people in the northern climates will recognize this as a snow brush that the plastics scraper has broken off of. When they break like that, I drill a hole in the end and hang them next to the workbench as a bench brush. Is your chip pan shallow enough that you can just sweep chips out right into a trash can?2B051EC3-540A-4718-922E-0E8DA8286F60.jpeg
 
projectnut said:
Another vote for misting or brush on cutting oil/lubricant. One of the worst jobs at work was getting tapped to clean out the machine coolant tanks. They were always nasty smelling and full of swarf that was small enough to slip through the drain systems into the sump. Since I don't use a coolant system there is very little in the chip pan other than the swarf itself.

For large piles of swarf I use a homemade chip hook something like this:


For the smaller stuff I use a small piece of 16 gauge 316 stainless and scrape it over the edge of the chip tray into a 5 gallon bucket. The larger lathe has plenty of room under the bed to reach to the back of the pan. The smaller one has a pan that will slide out for cleaning. I use the same methods for both machines.

Here's a picture of each of the machines with the scrapers in the chip pan. Note the stainless scrapers are near the tailstock end of the machines. The 5 gallon bucket is on the floor under the larger machine. I usually wait until I have at least a couple buckets full before I take them over to the recycle center. Originally I filled a 30 gallon barrel then hauled it over. That was fine until they started went to a larger steel dumpster. It was a real PITA to attempt to lift the barrel 6' up to tip it over the edge.
Click to expand...
Why are your shop so clean and tidy?? I clean........a bit and the a few minutes later the gremlins under the table have put everything back on the table which I have just put away.
 
on my dv 59 to move the carriage you have to loosen to move it so clean chip tray is needed
 
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