My First Lathe - HF 9" x 20"

Maybe a bit late now, but I was given a great tip when turning cast iron. Get one of the cheap straw colored paint brushes (they are actually called chip brushes) and hold it or otherwise secure it behind the cutting tool to deflect the chips. I did this when I turned some back plates and it made a huge difference. These brushes are also handy for general machine clean up as well.

Another thing I did in my shop was to put in some screw in hooks for a heavy duty shower curtain. This also really helps to contain the chips when you have a job that is messy. I have a low ceiling so hooks in the joists works perfect and makes it easy to move it where needed in the shop.. If you are in a garage with a typical 7-8 foot ceiling you might need to get creative and add some sort of extension so the curtain hangs close to the grou d.
 
Aaron_W said:
Maybe a bit late now, but I was given a great tip when turning cast iron. Get one of the cheap straw colored paint brushes (they are actually called chip brushes) and hold it or otherwise secure it behind the cutting tool to deflect the chips. I did this when I turned some back plates and it made a huge difference. These brushes are also handy for general machine clean up as well.

Another thing I did in my shop was to put in some screw in hooks for a heavy duty shower curtain. This also really helps to contain the chips when you have a job that is messy. I have a low ceiling so hooks in the joists works perfect and makes it easy to move it where needed in the shop.. If you are in a garage with a typical 7-8 foot ceiling you might need to get creative and add some sort of extension so the curtain hangs close to the grou d.
Click to expand...

Not late at all! Great ideas!! I will implement both. Anything to contain the mess this is going to make. Will take photos because that is going to look funny as heck.... me working behind a shower curtain with the lathe in the garage... that is going to look hilarious. :grin big: :grin big:

Thank you for the ideas!

And this is what the area the lathe is in, looks like...

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I really need to take time to clean up and organize all this carp... :rolleyes: I need to start getting rid of old motorcycle parts, and stuff that is just not going to get used... letting go is so hard to do...
 
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The way I have mine set up the curtain is about where that 3rd grout line is in your tile, well out of my way for working, and 90% or so of the chips that make it to the curtain fall straight down instead of flying all over the shop. Cast iron is about the only thing I've turned that needs it, most other materials being much better behaved and falling into the chip tray or on the floor close to the lathe.

I also use the curtain when using the mill, because mills fling stuff everywhere, but I run it in an L shape around the mill. It is in a corner so the walls catch stuff going the other way.

You can get a heavy 8 or 10ga commercial shower curtain 6ft wide for about $15. These are very thick for shower curtains, 8ga is 0.2mm and 10ga is 0.25 mm.

I got the idea from somebody else here who was showing a picture of their set up, works great. With my low ceiling it is easy to set up or move the curtain as needed, higher ceilings might take more creativity. It theory hot metal will melt the plastic and stick but I've only had a couple of extra large chips off the mill do this and they were easily brushed off with a wisk broom.
 
Low ceiling in my garage, so that suggestion is going to work out great. I will try to find it locally. Thanks again.
 
This was easy... Took it to the mill for the slot and then drilled and used a 5mm tap for the threads...

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Nothing else to do but to start bringing it to correct dimensions... I need to get the shower curtain first... I already have the brush and will make a mount for putting it on a magnetic base...
 
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Aaron_W said:
Maybe a bit late now, but I was given a great tip when turning cast iron. Get one of the cheap straw colored paint brushes (they are actually called chip brushes) and hold it or otherwise secure it behind the cutting tool to deflect the chips. I did this when I turned some back plates and it made a huge difference. These brushes are also handy for general machine clean up as well.
Click to expand...
THANK YOU!!! This is working great!! No need for anything else at this moment... already 1/2" down... Easy peasy... Speed at the lowest setting (in the chart is 120 rpms, in reality, measure with the rpm display, is 145 rpms)... and slow manual feed.

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And I also covered the lead screw with some split wire loom...

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I think John York (Benmychree) gave me the tip about the chip brush.

Before the brush I found turning cast iron was kind of like staring into a sand blaster. o_O
 
One thing that I forgot to mentioned... I started with an HSS tool bit and the backplate did not like that at all... looking in the pile of tools that I got with the lathe, there were a couple of cutters that had a tip on them.... searching for similar photos, turned out those are carbide brazed tipped tool bits. That also made a significant difference...
 
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wachuko said:
One thing that I forgot to mentioned... I started with an HSS tool bit and the backplate did not like that at all... looking in the pile of tools that I got with the lathe, there were a couple of cutters that had a tip on them.... searching for similar photos, turned out those are carbide brazed tipped tool bits. That also made a significant difference...
Click to expand...
From my understanding you need to go very slow for cast iron with HSS. Need to keep the SFM to 50-60. SFM = RPM * pi * D/12. D is the diameter in inches & 12 converts from inches to feet. Solving for RPM = 12 * SFM / (pi * D) = 12 * 50 / (3.14 * 6) = 31.8 RPM. I'd bet you were going a lot faster than that! Didn't you say your minimum RPM was 100? Way too fast for HSS and 6" cast iron.
 
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