Chip Clean Up

We have a 2 axis mill, I think it is called called a Prototrak, similar in size to a Bridgeport knee mill without the knee, the spindle moves on the column. It has the folding way covers which are a chore to clean after 8 hours of chip creation per day. This is annoying at best.

We also have 3 Bridgeport 2 axis knee mills with no way covers, some are 25 or more years old. This morning one of these mills interpolated four 8" OD X 5 1/2" ID X 1/2" thick bronze parts from flat stock, I put them in a lathe because they had a tapered bore, 6" to 5.875" 1/4" long.
The 20 year old mill without way covers ran the circle within .010 TIR. I had the guy that milled it look at the indicator when the part was in the lathe, he was amazed that it was that close to round, it had the typical errors at 12, 3, 6, and 9 on the clock when the ball screws change direction.

My point being that going through a good deal of trouble and installing the terribly annoying bellows way covers is not worth it if you do not run the machine 30 or more hours per week.
 
Didnt mean installing bellows or way covers. These are just harbor freight rubber roll that you lay on the table...and painter paper you lay over that. A few pieces of cardboard to stop the flying chips.
Not much trouble to go thru, takes about 2 minutes. Saves alot of time in cleanup.

Yes the bellows are a Pita ...but they were already installed and painter paper gets laid over that too.
Be careful with fabric. If it catches something unexpectedly , it can pull you in ...lol
 
I use a shop vac if set shop vac outside it take the smoke out too.

Dave

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AGCB97 said:
Looking for an easier, faster way to clean chips from machines. I use a shop vac on the metal parts which works OK but my ways are protected w/ fabric and the vac try's to suck it up too.

I saw a guy on YouTube that had a magnetic stick that looked like it worked good. An electromagnetic one seems like it would be very good.

Any 1st hand experience or suggestions?

Thanks
Aaron
Click to expand...
 
Finally got around to finishing the handle for my chip magnet. I'm pretty happy with it.

6039f75bbc898a6b0b86b14d5d540d07.jpg

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 
I use a dustpan and brush for the bulk of the chips. On the lathe, I pull out the chips from under the bed with piece of flat stock and follow with dustpan brush. This will get almost all of the bigger chips and most of the rest. The ShopVac will do the remainder. When I use flood coolant on the mill, I clean up the bulk of the chips with the brush and wash the mill down with a length of pvc hose slipped over my coolant nozzle for the remainder. If the mill will not be used for a few days, I will then use air to push remaining coolant from the table, using care not to direct the blast towards moving machined surfaces and wipe down with a rag. Brushing in the direction of the bellows folds removes almost all the chips. Long term inactivity warrants a protective oil coat.
 
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