How do You Clean Out Your Lathe Chip Tray?

ohh yea dont forget that lathes with dials on the tailstock have chip trays:digger:
 
Barncat said:
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?View attachment 355770
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I like that snow brush. The chip drawer that motivated me to start this thread is a pull out drawer that is about a foot deep. The operator has to reach in there and scoop out the chips.

My other (benchtop) lathe has a tray under it that is easily managed.
 
I am embarrassed to say that I line the area under my lathe with a sheet of 4mil plastic sheeting. When I'm done, I pull the whole thing out and dump it. A new one goes in and I'm ready for the next job.

Yes, hot chips dimple/melt some of the plastic but it catches 99.9% without leaving any in the tray and my paint is totally intact. Call me stupid but it works for me ... and it works with aluminum, too!
 
I have Clarice use tongs and a spatula to clean up the chips into a dustpan with a brush, then use a scraper to push the coolant to the drain holes, then put a new plastic sheet on the removable tray on my lathe with dials that read to 0.001" to keep the paint intact.

"Hot Chips" is the name of my band.
 
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