Bed Guards

[MikeMc]

I'm prone to picking up someone elses discards just in case. Back before I even had my Craftsman metal lathe someone tossed some thin steel plate left over from some storage lockers they were putting up. It turned out they are a good fit over the bed of my lathe. I often see a post warnig "Don't lay things on the ways." but in a small, crowded shop it's hard to avoid. My shop usually has what little bench space there is holding parts of some unfinished project that had to be back burnered for another more pressing one. For instance, my tablesaw is serving as a table to hold the grinder to sharpen tools while machining the backplate for the new 3-jaw chuck I just bought. Had I not found these plates I think I would have to made something out of plywood to protect the ways whether changing chucks or using the lathe as an assembly table.
Mike

 

[Round in circles]

The lipped sheet in the first picture would also make a great part catcher if you lay a soft cloth over it after inverting it so that the lip is at the rear uppermost .
So when you hacksaw of a nearly parted piece it does not roll off down the back of the lathe ..like my 4 mm dia x 15 mm long turned & stepped to a 3 mm thread & knurled at the 4 mm diameter did .
I now use some scrap 300 mm wide UPVC window cill scrap plastic " L " form for my protector & catcher. I hold it in place when doing the hack sawing by backing the carriage up to it so it holds it to the headstock casing.

 

[brino]

I'm prone to picking up someone elses discards just in case.

I resemble that remark......

My shop usually has what little bench space there is holding parts of some unfinished project that had to be back burnered for another more pressing one. For instance, my tablesaw is serving as a table to hold the grinder to sharpen tools while machining the backplate for the new 3-jaw chuck I just bought.

...that one too....

Had I not found these plates I think I would have to made something out of plywood to protect the ways whether changing chucks or using the lathe as an assembly table.

For my old lathe I had some plywood pieces with wooden dovetails on the bottom (one moveable for clamping); I should make new ones for my current lathe.

-brino