Making machine covers for a home workshop

HMF

HMF

Site Founder
Administrator
Joined
Sep 22, 2010
Messages
7,223
Covers are especially important in a home workshop because we usually try to cram as much as possible into a small space . That means grinders within grit drift distance of lathes and mills for example. If that grit settles onto oiled ways a lot of insidious damage can be done. Dressing grinding wheels is particularly bad in this respect. Whenever you can, you should cover your sensitive machines before grinding then let the dust settle before uncovering them. Same thing for wood work, although this is a bit less destructive. You can use old duvet covers - they are big enough to cover up my machines and they don't cause condensation

I am thinking of a canvas, duck, or denim type weight material for the covers. I have found this site that provides excellent instructions on making covers:

http://www.projectsinmetal.com/norman_newguy_malking_custom_covers_for_machinery/

The master plan is to buy a machine off Craigslist or FleaBay .

Do any of you have any recommendations on a machine or the type I should be shopping for? Or anything pre-prepared I can use as covers?


Thanks,


Nelson
 
Your way too fancy for me. I just bought canvas painters tarps at HF and cut them in half to cover my 4 machines. They worked well even as a built a shop around the machines as far as saw dust is concerned.


be
 
Good Job! I just did what a lot of other people have done. Just bought canvas and covered them. (Yours looks a lot better). I just may add sewing to my millions of other hobbies and make custom covers. ;)
 
A bit OT, but something we do at work to protect the mill tables is to cut two pieces of Plexiglas the width of the table. They're square on the end and convex on the other end (to fit nicely around the vise base). A couple of plastic cylinders are screwed to the bottoms to engage the T-slots. They keep the chips out of the T-slots and prevent dings on the tables. Easy to lift off when you need access.

CH
 
I followed Norman_newguy's article and it worked great - made a cover for my grizzly 12x24. I used an old piece of Harbor Freight blue plastic for the pattern.

I made the cover from 10oz canvas which is available as drop cloths from Home Depot. This is good stuff. It is reasonably durable and a lot cheaper per yard than from a fabric store.
 
Frank Ford link=topic=1322.msg6963#msg6963 date=1300145985 said:
I bought a partial bolt of cheap denim, and did a trade with the sewing instructor at TechShop. She made me fitted covers for all my tools (eleven at the time) and I made her some nice thread spool holders:

spoolholder20.jpg

Here's that project:

http://www.frets.com/HomeShopTech/AtTechShop/SpoolHolder/spoolholder.html
Click to expand...

Awesome work on those thread holders, If I ever get back to the sewing room will have to consider making a few of those.

Maybe even look into that roll of canvas and consider some covers, but then I go from machine to machine and tend to keep them all uncovered.

I think for shop use covers I would look into Nomex material though as it is flame resistant. I stopped wearing blue jeans because every so often when welding, they would catch on fire and smoulder away. At least with the Dickies I have never had them catch fire. Nothing worse than having the grinding sparks that you are trying to keep off the machines so they don't wear from grit, catch fire and burn the shop down.

Walter
 
Last edited:
My metal lathe and mill share the same workshop with my table saw, wood shaper and planer. Anything in my shop not covered gets a layer of sawdust eventually. So, although painters canvas has a fairly open weave, it will still keep things fairly clean.

A side benefit from machine covers is that I will be less likely to pile junk on the sides of my lathe bench.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top