Lathe bed protector

[toglhot]

This is a bed protector I made up a while back, keeps the bed pretty clean. The protector blind is made of some oil impregnated canvas which seems pretty well impervious to everything so far. It clips over two bolts on the carriage, the other end contains the roller made of PVC pipe with bearings sunk in and secured to the angle bracket by a couple of 1/4" bolts. a cable is wound around the PVC tube and routed via two aluminium pulleys to a largish weight at the rear of the lathe which slides up and down in a PVC tube. Wind the carriage back and the canvas follows the carriage. Wind the carriage forward and the weight drops in the tube turning the blind tube and winding in the canvas.

Simple but effective!

[pepi]

Looks like a good idea, have you used it with a 4 jaw chuck, looks like that could be a tight fit.

In my head I'm not sure the bed needs to be covered. Couldn't this potentially create more of a chip management problem? After all the bed is design to allow the chips to fall to the bottom pan.

Just saying
Greg

[Mike E.]

Great idea, especially for those who machine a lot of cast iron.

[Vinny]

(11-25-2017, 08:08 AM)Mike E. Wrote: Great idea, especially for those who machine a lot of cast iron.

or wood, or plastic, ...

[toglhot]

Haven't a problem with anything hitting the protector, if it was a problem, just disconnect it and let it roll up, not rocket science.   Truth be known, I actually made it for when I'm milling on the lathe, but as it turns out I use it all the time now.

[kwoodhands]

(11-25-2017, 07:55 PM)toglhot Wrote: Haven't a problem with anything hitting the protector, if it was a problem, just disconnect it and let it roll up, not rocket science.   Truth be known, I actually made it for when I'm milling on the lathe, but as it turns out I use it all the time now.

I had a rubber accordion type protector on my mill. Finally got torn and worn out. I removed it and was going to order a new one from Grizzly . I wanted to finish what I had been milling so I came up with temporary, now permanent solution.I save glossy cardboard for templates and such. Took one piece and bent folds like the pleated rubber I tossed out. Installed it about 5 months ago and it still is holding up well. Worked well enough to make accordion protectors for my lathes. Makes clean up less of a hassle.
I do not expect the cardboard to last  as long as a rubber type , but for 10 minutes work every so often it makes sense to me.

mike

[terrywerm]

I like your idea of using the old fashioned method of a hanging weight to take care of tension and rewind! The KISS method is definitely in play here and I like it!