# Little Lathe Improvement.



## LX Kid

After recently starting to play around with my G9729 lathe I new there were some simple improvements I could do.  The carriage shuttle handle was too small, no chip cover for ways and wanted a cheapo  QCTP grinder to do grinding and cutting.  (Saw the  QCTP grinder on YouTube)  I also made a ways oiler/cleaner. The reverse lead screw project is still a work in progress.


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## jbolt

I like the grinder holder! 

One comment on the way wiper. Be careful of using soft materials. Debris and grit will cling / embed in it turning it into an abrasive pad. Delrin and hard rubber are better choices. I've seen cork used too. I have hard rubber on mine and I pull them off and clean after turning steel or cast iron.

Jay


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## LX Kid

Yes your correct!  I've already noticed the metal getting caught in the cloth material I used.  Will the delrin wear on the ways?


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## dlane

Don't know what the way cover is made out of But be carful the 3-4 jaw dosn't get hold of it and sling it around ,  cool tool post grinder.


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## LX Kid

dlane said:


> Don't know what the way cover is made out of But be carful the 3-4 jaw dosn't get hold of it and sling it around ,  cool tool post grinder.



It's piece of vinyl attached to two T-nuts and slides back and forth in the slot.  This helps keep metal from falling down on the lead screw.  Im thinking of increasing the width of the vinyl to the width of the table to also protect the motor sucking cutting dust and chaff into it.


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## dlane

Great concept , tryed it , I used thin rubber sheet , worked good for collet work then I needed the four jaw with jaws a little out side of Chuck body, Pucker factor jumped way up when the chuck got hold of it and tore it loose ,it was whipping around with the chuck  . Vinyl maybe better donno, just the breeze from the chuck revolving lifted it till it snagged a jaw and tore loose. I jumped back in time but it could of Been a lot worse. 
Just sayin be careful with it


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## jbolt

LX Kid said:


> Yes your correct!  I've already noticed the metal getting caught in the cloth material I used.  Will the delrin wear on the ways?



Delrin is used for lightweight bearing materiel so it wont wear on the ways.  If you use Delrin I would back bevel it so the contact area is about 1/16" or less.


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## rrjohnso2000

No experience in these matters but would magnets sewn in the end of the way cover help the pucker factor


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## LX Kid

rrjohnso2000 said:


> No experience in these matters but would magnets sewn in the end of the way cover help the pucker factor



The vinyl is heavy and don't perceive this to be a problem.  It lays down very well and doesn't blow around.


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## Cheeseking

I made a sheet metal tray.   Slips on/off quick and easy.   
90% of the time its not in the way of the jaws and keeps the majority of the chips from getting on the ways and working under the carriage.


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## LX Kid

Good ideas there with those covers!  

Come on guys!  Get your camera out and let's see some of your ideas.


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## LX Kid

jbolt said:


> Delrin is used for lightweight bearing materiel so it wont wear on the ways.  If you use Delrin I would back bevel it so the contact area is about 1/16" or less.



Used a piece of acrylic material I had laying around and seems to work well.  I did cut the back side about 1/16" for the contact area with the way.


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## LX Kid

Here's another little improvement, if it will work on my lathe!  It's a 10", 4-jaw,  independent adjacent chuck.  (China of course.)  If it's "not" too heavy for my spindle I'll have to make a mounting plate for it.  My spindle is 3 bolt mount and this is 4 bolt mount.  Found it for cheap, it's "new" and just couldn't pass that deal up!


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## LX Kid

May be more effort than it's worth to try and use this chuck.   Pretty big and don't know if it's adaptable to my lathe.  An 8" is probably a better choice for my hobby lathe.


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## LX Kid

Guess I messed up on my expectations to use the 10" chuck.  Read the manual and says not to use a chuck larger than 6".  Well maybe it will make some good trading material or up on Craigslist it will go.  Does anyone have "some Cheeze to go with my whine?". LoL


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## tweinke

I would think that would  be an awful lot of chuck for that machine. Once in awhile bigger is not always better, Might be good trading material though.


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## LX Kid

Re-did my way cleaner and used a piece of acrylic I had laying around.  I also put a spring and pin on the carriage lock because it would not stay engaged without holding it.


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## petcnc

LX Kid said:


> Good ideas there with those covers!
> 
> Come on guys!  Get your camera out and let's see some of your ideas.



Mine is a mini lathe and I made a different cover made from an unknown plastic from a copy machine cover.
I hold both ends of it with magnets and to avoid the lift up of the plastic when the toolpost comes near the headstock I drilled it near the end when fully depressed and I have put through it a metal bar (you can see it extended behind the tool post).
The near side of it lifts though and it empties the debris to the back on the cover of the lathe.
If I wish to keep it level I just use a small weight as you see on the photo.


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## LX Kid

petcnc said:


> Mine is a mini lathe and I made a different cover made from an unknown plastic from a copy machine cover.
> I hold both ends of it with magnets and to avoid the lift up of the plastic when the toolpost comes near the headstock I drilled it near the end when fully depressed and I have put through it a metal bar (you can see it extended behind the tool post).
> The near side of it lifts though and it empties the debris to the back on the cover of the lathe.
> If I wish to keep it level I just use a small weight as you see on the photo.



I was looking for some of that accordion fold plastic but could on find short ones.  Guess I could rivet two together.  My lathe is 31" between centers.  That said, I probably would only use the far right side one in a blue moon.  Nice setup you've got!


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## petcnc

LX Kid said:


> I was looking for some of that accordion fold plastic but could on find short ones.  Guess I could rivet two together.  My lathe is 31" between centers.  That said, I probably would only use the far right side one in a blue moon.  Nice setup you've got!



Thank you. 
I think there is room for improvement on the idea! Mainly on the support system to keep it horizontal. 

I was thinking to try something like the folding techniques you see to the next sketch.




Petros


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## LX Kid

View attachment 122211

	

		
			
		

		
	
 Started making a carriage stop last night.  Only way I can see to do this is going "all the way" to the back side of the ways.  This may have some good mounting area for other accessories being it's going all the way from one way to the other way.  I used the mill for the first time and am "definitely" going to need a 3-4" spacer, on the table, to be able to get the work high enough to do the milling.  I put a 1" piece of iron under the vice and was barely able to get the 60* cut.  My Chicom angle vice was off by about 4* and have to cut twice.  (You pay less, you get less!)

The post sticking up is where I'll mount the dial gauge.  Gotta figure out how I want to make the lock up.  Maybe a gib or if someone has an idea for me just chime in!  Thanks


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## LX Kid

Used the mill for the first time yesterday and cut my knuckles using the fine feed adjustment.   I raked my knuckles on the corner of the belt shield.  Today _I made an extension of the shaft to clear the corner and also put a different knob cause the original is slippery.  When I removed the fine adjustment shaft I added a thin washer to take the wobble out of the shaft.   Seems a lot better.


_


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## LX Kid

Finished the carriage stop.  Not exactly a work of art but functional.  Used what ever materials I had on hand.  Not pretty but I'll bet it will work just fine.


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## planeflyer21

Slick!  In pic 1 I was wondering how that worked but in pic 2, brilliant!


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## LX Kid

Yet another little improvement, for me, on my new Grizzly!  I didn't like the flip/flop gib adjustment for the cross slide so I made a cupel of knurled knobs using the screw shaft from them.  Maybe one day I'll actually make something with my machine instead of working on it!  LoL  I guess I like doing it though.

I would like to make a chip shield to keep all the mess on top of the lathe stand as it would make cleaning up a little easier.  Maybe even a brass worm gear for the thread counter.  That would give me a chance to learn to use my dividing head I bought about three years ago!


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## LX Kid

One of the "biggest" irritants for me has been the cross travel of the carriage using the rack.  Seems that there was an alignment problem of the carriage gear box pinion gear and the rack.  It was putting a tight squeeze and could caused a jerky operation.  I discovered two problems.  First was the pinion gear was made so poorly with pits and rust.  I purchased another but was not much better.  I used a triangular file to smooth out each tooth.  Second was that I added .009" shims, to the back side of the carriage gear box, because the pinion gear was not riding level with the rack.  Things are much, much better now.


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## LX Kid

My latest improvment is the addition of my new 4-way independent chuck.  Took me "only" two days to get it done.  Had to make a sleeve in order to join the back plate and the chuck.  The two center hole dimensions were about .070" difference.  My run out at the back of the chuck is .005" depending on how much finger pressure I'm using to spin the chuck.  Is .005" acceptable on a 4-jaw chuck?  I couldn't put a step on the back plate
cause the thru hole is bigger than the chuck's thru hole.


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## LX Kid

My next improvement might be a vacuum attachment to the tool post to suck up the mountains of chaff during the cutting process.  "WHAT A MESS!"  Gotta find a project to make instead of all the improvements.


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## mattthemuppet2

if it's any consolation, I've been doing this for 3-4 years and the vast majority of my projects have been improvements to my tools 

for the 4 jaw, there should be a lip on the back side of the chuck. You need to cut the back plate to fit this, although on a 4 jaw it's not that crucial. The only way to check run out would be to chuck a known straight piece of dowel that you can engage with the whole jaw depth, get it to run less than 0.001 at the tip of the jaws and then see what the runout it a few inches away. As long as the back plate registers were machined on the lathe, then you should be able to keep that <0.001 for some distance.


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## LX Kid

I had a bit of a problem with the chuck/back plate mateing.  The thru-hole of the back plate is larger than the hole on the chuck so I as unable to make a step on it to fit into the back of the chuck.  I had to make a stepped  sleeve to mate them before marking and tapping the back plate.  My tolerances were good and had to mallet the two together onto the sleeve.


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## FLguy

LX Kid said:


> Yes your correct!  I've already noticed the metal getting caught in the cloth material I used.  Will the delrin wear on the ways?


Try UHMW,it's easly machined and very slippery and fairly cheap.


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## mattthemuppet2

LX Kid said:


> I had a bit of a problem with the chuck/back plate mateing.  The thru-hole of the back plate is larger than the hole on the chuck so I as unable to make a step on it to fit into the back of the chuck.  I had to make a stepped  sleeve to mate them before marking and tapping the back plate.  My tolerances were good and had to mallet the two together onto the sleeve.



I don't really understand what your saying. The back plate register for radial runout has nothing to do with the chuck through hole. Not even a little bit. The back of the chuck should have 2 lips - one from through hole to the recessed back of the chuck, the other from the recessed back of the chuck to the non-recessed back of the chuck. The second transition/ lip is what interfaces with the radial register on the back plate. The non-recessed back of the chuck is what registers on the flat outer part of the back plate (the axial register). The chuck through hole and recessed back of the chuck should not touch the back plate at all. If you're joining the two together using a sleeve in the chuck through hole then you've done it completely wrong. It may sort of work and reduce the size of work you can fit through the chuck at best and it may do all of that and cause axial runout at the worst.

there are lots of how tos and videos on making chuck back plates (I think I've posted a couple on here), I'd strongly recommend reading/ watching them so you can see what's going on.


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## LX Kid

I knew I should have taken pics before I assembled it.  The hole in my backplate, for example, is about 3" and the stepped hole in the back of the chuck is about 2 7/8 inch.  There is no way to cut a step in the backplate to step down to the smaller size of the step in the chuck.  So I had to make a stepped sleeve to be able to join the two in order to make everything centered.  Does that make any sense?

The pic is where I was test fitting, not a completed work, just to see how the sleeve would fit to the backplate hole.  The center portion is "not" a machined part of the backplate but is a sleeve inserted into it.


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## mattthemuppet2

I think I understand what you did now, but not why your back plate had such a huge hole in it. You're not talking about the spindle flange on the machine that you bolt chucks to are you? Was the back plate something that you bought separately? Most back plates, whether threaded, bolted or whatever, come partially machined so you have to cut your own registers but I've never heard of one for that size chuck that is not much more than a ring of material.


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## LX Kid

Your correct.  I bought the backplate from Grizzly along with a faceplate.  The faceplate has to be returned  because the bolt up is too small for my spindles bolt up.  My lathe didn't come with all the accessories.  I bought at an estate sale, new in crate,  but a lot missing.  I could have saved a lot of money had I ordered it new from Grizzly.  Now I have about $3k invested.  "Now I'm just trying to make some tasty chicken salad out of chicken manure!"  If you git my meaning?


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## mattthemuppet2

oh right, I see now, what a pain. Well, as long as it works and you have acceptable runout, who cares? As for money, well at least you have something at the end of it that you can use to make more things. Better than a lot of other hobbies, like golf or gambling.


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## LX Kid

My spindle has a flange that everything has to bolt up flange to.   It's not a screw on "like a real lathe!"  When you buy toy lathes you have to put up with a lot I guess


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## Steve Shannon

Look at what Stefan Gotteswinter did with his 9x20 lathe.  I think he has a very similar chuck, which he uses to his advantage. 







 Steve Shannon, P.E.


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## LX Kid

Steve Shannon said:


> Look at what Stefan Gotteswinter did with his 9x20 lathe.  I think he has a very similar chuck, which he uses to his advantage.
> Steve Shannon, P.E.



Yes he has done a lot of nice work!  Thanks for the link.


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## LX Kid

I  did a centering test on my chuck, about two inches out, using a 1/2" pin and got it down to .0005" and I'd say that will work for me.  First time I've ever centered a 4-jaw so it took me a while.  Here's a pic of the finished chuck mounting.  I had to cut about 1/8" off the four bolts so they weren't coming thru.   I put my 3-jay back on the lathe.  Dang!  That 4-jaw is 30lbs heavy.


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## LX Kid

I'm waiting for Grizzly Tech Support to get back to me on the 9" faceplate.  I could just go ahead and lathe the mount step larger and drill new holes but for the $144 I spent for this sucker I think I want the correct product.


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## LX Kid

I sent Grizzly an explanation of the problem with the faceplate, as pictured above, and they said it's the correct faceplate for my G9729 lathe.  They said they would do a little further look into it but it should be the correct faceplate.  Do you guys see, the obvious,  that it can never bolt up to my spindle?  "What the heck is wrong with these people?"  Guess I should just quit whining and cut it open and tap new holes!


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## Steve Shannon

In the parts sheet they list the faceplate, #P9729276 (276 on the diagram) and the backplate #p9729277 (277 on the diagram). Frequently it's a bit of an shop exercise to fit one to the other. It looks to me like the faceplate does not simply bolt to the spindle nose.



 Steve Shannon, P.E.


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## LX Kid

I needed both items and the backplate, 277, was correct for mounting my 4-jaw chuck.   The  faceplate is incorrectly identified as fitting the G9729 lathe.


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## kamn

LX Kid said:


> View attachment 122928
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> I'm waiting for Grizzly Tech Support to get back to me on the 9" faceplate.  I could just go ahead and lathe the mount step larger and drill new holes but for the $144 I spent for this sucker I think I want the correct product.




So what you are saying is that in the top photo there is an adapter plate for the 6" 4 jaw chuck?? And you are having problems mounting the faceplate.....are you trying to mount the faceplate to the 4 jaw adapter?? If so, how about mounting faceplate directly without adapter plate


Edit;  Nevermind, I just went through the last page in this thread and see the problems. Could be that someone miss labelled the faceplate


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## LX Kid




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## LX Kid

Couple more little improvements!  One is a maintenance routine and the other, well you decide.  I removed and cleaned my 3-jaw for the first time because it was getting a little hard to  work the jaws.  Wow!  I could not believe how much chaff was inside it.  I removed every part and cleaned with odorless paint thinner, lubed with lithium grease and put it back on.  What a difference that made.  The other is a little chip shield attached to the tool post to keep those dang hot chips from burning my hand.  I think it will need to be just a little bit bigger though.

As a side thought I did find a little project that is worthy of my skills!  Going into my shop, with a cup of coffee in hand, the dad gum door closer cut loose and 'swoosh' coffee all over me.  Well I made a new lock on the door closer to solve that problem.  LoL




This will probably justify the thousands I've spent on my hobby shop.  Ha!


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## LX Kid

As funds become available I plan on CNCing either the 3-in-1 or the mill.  Anyway I bought the below DIY partial kit off eBay last night.  Still need a lot of other parts but month by month I'll get them.


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## LX Kid

Well now I've done it!  Grizzly told me just to send the faceplate back and they would refund my money.  I guess that was the easy way for them to wash their hands of not being able to give me the correct faceplate no matter if it left me hanging in the breeze!  Sooo I decided, with my superior machining skills, that I would take the $160 delivered "wrong" faceplate and thread new holes and lathe out the recess!  "WRONG!"  After measuring several times, and using the backplate off my 4-jaw, I located three new drilling points and proceeded to ruin my day.  Tapped the holes and bolted it to the spindle so I could enlarge the center recess and I'm off .090 -120" center.  The pic shows where I market the lo and hi side.   Can someone guide me thru this?  I have enough meat on the faceplate for at least a dozen more tries.


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## LX Kid

Maybe make a lipped arbor to mount the faceplate on.  I could then cut the center recess and at least that portion would be done.


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## tmarks11

You could just turn it in place to get a concentric outer diameter.

The downside is that you will be add a balance issue, since you would be taking off up to 0.120" off one side when you turn the plate.  Of course, since this is just a rough casting, it might not be balanced to begin with, so maybe it doesn't matter.

You could always drill some MORE holes in the plate to balance it when you are done.  

Since usually a faceplate is used to turn oddly shaped chucks of metal that won't fit into a chuck, and since said chunks of metal tend to be wildly, scarily unbalanced, the balance issue probably wouldn't matter.

Or... you cut rotate the plate by 30 degrees and drill 3 MORE holes... maybe you will be closer to concentric alignment next time....     And if those don't quite work, then rotate it by 15 more degrees and drill 3 more holes...    And if this doesn't work, then look for a good deal on a 12x36 lathe that has a D1-4 or D1-5 style cam-lock spindle, so you don't have to go through this again...

And when you are all done, throw the faceplate in the bottom drawer of your toolbox, where it will sit until you need it next year.  Most of the work I do fits in a 3 jaw, 4 jaw, or 5C collet chuck.


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## LX Kid

I "got-r-done" my arbor idea worked.  No wobble, vibration and seems to be good to go.  I had to enlarge one threaded hole on one side so the bolt would fit in and had to take about .015" off the outer circumference.  Grizzly did a lot of good things, in customer support, for others but they failed me.


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## LX Kid

After smashing my fingers trying to put the 4-jaw chuck on the spindle, and it rolling off on the back and on to the floor, I figured there has to be a better way to hold that sucker up so it can be bolted on.  I saw this idea on YouBoob and is probably done already by a lot of people.   Screwed three pieces of 3/4" plywood together and cut out a  radius of the chuck.  Works good and a lot easier to bolt it up, "Should I ever need to!"  Not so "purdy" but functional.  Maybe a little paint would help!  LoL


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## LX Kid

Here's my lead screw swarf cover that moves with carriage.  It's about seven inches long of thin aluminum.  I added a strong earth magnet under the rack to stop the carriage from crashing the cover into the lead screw gearbox.  Not the strongest metal but if it works well I will use a thicker aluminum.  I'll use it awhile and see how durable it is.  Still thinking that I'll add a plate across the ways to protect them.


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## LX Kid

Used my "chunk of wood" today to see how it might work out as a table riser.  Came out not to bad but have to find a couple more t-nuts on the opposing corners to pull it down flush with the table. It already seems ok but I'll leave it on the table pulled down tight for several days to take any warpage out. This will work for any roughing I may need and them go over to my mill for any accuracy needed. "Bubba'a back in town!"


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## LX Kid

My only "Kurt Style" machinist vise is bolted down and trammed on my mill and don't want to remove it.   It's really a pain to align it every time.  Maybe a 4" vice is in my future but right now I don't need it cause I haven't a project yet!  Gotta find a project and quite playing with improving my equipment.  "Maybe a SS wallet to protect all my credit cards would be a challenge!"  LoL


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## LX Kid

After testing the very thin aluminum swarf shield I decided to make a thicker one.  The thinner one seemed to work very well so I made another more durable one.


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## LX Kid

All good idea's of mine seem to have a flaw in the end.  I needed to drill with the tail stock and found that I'm unable to get close enough to the chuck with the shield in place.  Sooo I have to remove the shield to do any drilling.  (Hassel!)


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## turnitupper

Get rid of the screw and use Neo. magnets to hold the shield in place. The ones with mounting holes afford solid fixing.
Then just rip the little bugger off and stick it to your lathe anywhere out of the way until you need it again.
John.


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## LX Kid

turnitupper said:


> Get rid of the screw and use Neo. magnets to hold the shield in place. The ones with mounting holes afford solid fixing.  Then just rip the little bugger off and stick it to your lathe anywhere out of the way until you need it again. John.



Now that sounds like a very good idea to me.  Even though it's only one screw to remove the shield I like the idea of magnets.  I'll take a look for some magnets that have a hole in them.  Thanks for that idea!


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## LX Kid

Probably something everyone else has already done, but I bought a keyless chuck for the tailstock.  What a pleasant improvement over using those darn keyed chucks where the keys never fit properly!  Should have done this long ago.  Best $39 I've spent in a while.


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