Atlas 10" Looking For Chip Tray Ideas

[Strtspdlx]

I wonder how much the complete kit cost at that time. That's pretty neat to see that type of stuff. Ideally I'd like to do something nearly exactly like that. However much wider to try and contain chips. Mainly is love to try to go back to the motor or 1-2" past and completely square with it down the backside. And then tuck the coolant reservoir and pump up under the wooden top that the lathe sits on. Not the shelflike my tooling stays there when I'm using the lathe consistently. I still need to figure out a lot.


Regards-Carlo

 

[wa5cab]

Carlo,

In October, 1944, the 10-775C pan for the 10x36 cost $14.50.

Don't get carried away with the size of the pan. Generally, if it sticks out in the front past the front of the legs the thing sits on, it is going to be uncomfortable to use. Regardless of how large you make it, it will never catch all of the chips, anyway. If you can do relatively large sheet metal work, I would suggest using the dimensions shown on the catalog page above and make a separate back-splash to go with it. I have some photos that I can't find right now that happen to show the one I added to my 3996. The top of it is bent over to form a narrow shelf.

 

[Strtspdlx]

Going towards the operator I just want to make the pan extend to the edge of the wooden top. Maybe 1/2"-3/4" past that as you said I don't need it to be in my way. I always try to direct the chips out the back of the lathe so if the chip tray could extend that way a bit more it would be ideal. My buddy works in a fab shop that can order sheets and break them to nearly any shape. However I may do it by hand as they can't produce radiused corners. And I'm not a fan of square corners. I have a lot to consider before I begin the build I just want to make sure I have all aspects covered before I begin.


Regards-Carlo

 

[aicomp]

I've been wanting to break a chip tray for my atlas 10" pretty much since I got it. Now I'm tired of cleaning the oil off the wood block its mounted to and would like a better way to "contain" most of the chips. I had thought of building a full length tray that goes under the bed feet but I'm not sure if it's exactly necessary. I know I'll definitely be going under the headstock foot as the bearings leak oil as fast as I can put it in. So I. That right it's either shim the tailstock side or make the chip tray go all the way. I'm just looking for ideas on dimensions. On the backside I wanted to extend it 6" past the feet as I try to get my tooling to throw the chips away from me if possible. I also though about going 4-5" past the feet on the operator side so I'd have a place to lay some tooling as I don't have shelving around the lathe at the moment. More or less if you could post pictures that would help. I'm unsure what gauge metal to use or how high I should make the lips. I thought about 3/4-1" as I'd like to set this up for flood coolant at some point. As cutting oil does get expensive and I sure do use it!
Also it is a 54" bed model and I believe I can get sheet metal in sheets of 4'x8' if I remember correctly.

Regards-Carlo

I have one off of a 10" Atlas lathe with a 54" bed. I am in Susanville, California.
Mike

 

[mike1]

I made a chip pan for my SB junior . I used 16 -GA sheet metal and braked the sides at a 45 degree angle . I also fabricated a coolant sump
along the rear of the tray. The dimensions of my tray are 72" x 30" x 1.5" .

 

[Anthony G]

I was going to make one for mine, too. Mine is mounted on a well constructed, sturdy steel table with a wooden top. I think I'm just going to bend up some sheet metal I have. I don't have a brake so I'll have to use old style methods of clamping 2X4s or something and bending that way. It should be fine I think. I'll just lay it out and bend over the edge first to get rid of the sharp edge and then bend up the sides and pop rivet the corners together. Easy and cheap.

On a related but different note, when I worked at Champion Spark Plug in the prototype lab, we would line the trays of the lathes with craft paper. Since we mostly worked on small parts, we didn't make a lot of mess. There were some large lathes in the lab, too, but we used those for making our tooling and fixtures, since we made all of the prototype spark plugs by hand, one at a time, and we had to develop tooling in a lot of cases to make the new designs. Anyways, we had small lathes, too, and to make clean-up easier we lined the trays with craft paper. Then we could just pull the paper out of the tray and empty it and then return it to the tray. Eventually, it would get bad enough from oil and such and we would just replace it. It kept the trays looking almost like new.

 

[Strtspdlx]

Anthony g
That sounds like a fun job. Being 28 I haven't found any job worth bragging about. I'd love to go back to school to get a degree in engineering and be able to go from my head to the real thing all by myself. And have something everyday society could benefit from. It's cool to hear stories of hand made prototypes although that seems to be becoming a thing of the past. How I wish I was 20 in 1950-1960


Regards-Carlo

 

[Anthony G]

Anthony g
That sounds like a fun job. Being 28 I haven't found any job worth bragging about. I'd love to go back to school to get a degree in engineering and be able to go from my head to the real thing all by myself. And have something everyday society could benefit from. It's cool to hear stories of hand made prototypes although that seems to be becoming a thing of the past. How I wish I was 20 in 1950-1960


Regards-Carlo

Hey Carlo. It was about the most interesting job I ever had. It had to be done that way and still is. They closed up in my area and moved the engineering/prototype services up into Michigan. The other spark plug manufacturers do it the same way, I suspect. It's expensive to commit to tooling up production machines before designs are verified. We would build and test, the engineers might make some changes depending on test results, and then we would build again with the design changes and test again, as many times as it would take. Eventually, we would build a "relatively" larger quantity for fleet testing and then the plug would go to production. There's more to a spark plug than meets the eye. Today, there are a lot of exotic precious (platinum alloys, silver, gold alloys, etc) metals in plugs and they have to be securely attached to electrode components because the inside of a combustion chamber is so volatile with high pressures, chemical reactions, heat, etc. We had to develop the weld schedules for all of the different alloys that were tried on new plug designs. It is expensive making plugs one at a time, but it is even more expensive to tool up high-scale production equipment only to find out that changes are needed and then to have to make new tooling over and over again. Some of the plugs we made were worth $100s of dollars a piece because of the labor involved, but some plugs (industrial) cost that much anyway. Some plug designs even needed new processes in order to make them and we did that, too. It was like making models, which is something I enjoy very much. And then there was the pride from building something yourself. It was a great job.

 

[Round in circles]

Going towards the operator I just want to make the pan extend to the edge of the wooden top. Maybe 1/2"-3/4" past that as you said I don't need it to be in my way. I always try to direct the chips out the back of the lathe so if the chip tray could extend that way a bit more it would be ideal. My buddy works in a fab shop that can order sheets and break them to nearly any shape. However I may do it by hand as they can't produce radiused corners. And I'm not a fan of square corners. I have a lot to consider before I begin the build I just want to make sure I have all aspects covered before I begin.


Regards-Carlo

Carlo , could you make it with square corners and then turn up a square steel block that has a cone shaped hole inside it . now cut it in four segments and you instantly have four corners with an internal radius .
Weld , braze or sweat solder them in the corners , then use a grinder to remove the waste or maybe even leave them square ( ish ) on the outside and radius-ed on the inside .. at least the corners will be strong .

 

[Strtspdlx]

I wasn't mainly concerned with strength. More or less I didn't want to have a place to snag clothing or my skin or anything else for that matter. And I'd like it to look very professional. To me square corners in certain areas where they can be rounded don't look very professional. But that's just my opinion.


Regards-Carlo