06-23-2014, 06:15 PM
Having no stock to start the remake of Darren's part, I cleaned out the chip pan on my lathe.
It's harder to do than you might think because the cleanout should be done from the rear of the machine, and I had to put it close to the wall because I'm low on space to leave empty.
There was perhaps 1/4" to 3/8" (6-10mm) of fines from filing and polishing at the bottom of the chip pan (integral part of the machine base), and that was soaking up coolant every time I turned it on. The machine hadn't had the coolant run for a couple of weeks, so the sludge was dry as a bone and came out like dry pancakes. That had to be at least 4 years of making parts on the lathe, and the dried up crusty stuff probably had some concrete and wood ships in there too because my dad used it for cutting off concrete-filled "lally columns" and did some woodwork on it.
Flowing as it should now!
It's harder to do than you might think because the cleanout should be done from the rear of the machine, and I had to put it close to the wall because I'm low on space to leave empty.
There was perhaps 1/4" to 3/8" (6-10mm) of fines from filing and polishing at the bottom of the chip pan (integral part of the machine base), and that was soaking up coolant every time I turned it on. The machine hadn't had the coolant run for a couple of weeks, so the sludge was dry as a bone and came out like dry pancakes. That had to be at least 4 years of making parts on the lathe, and the dried up crusty stuff probably had some concrete and wood ships in there too because my dad used it for cutting off concrete-filled "lally columns" and did some woodwork on it.
Flowing as it should now!