Thread: Drip tray for lathe

Was it made in England and leaking oil already?

Perhaps drip tray was a bad choice of words - something to stop all the metal chips going on the floor. It already has a rear splash tray.

Trying to keep the mess to a minimum as the lathe will be set up in a spare room between the kitchen and the laundry.

Only kidding

Nice looking lathe

If you are going to mount the drip tray between the mounting feet try and see how big a baking tray you can find at one of the cheapie shops.
Another thing to do if you are a little handy,get a piece of gal sheet no more than 1or1.5 mm thick,cut the corners to suit your bends,use a pair of vice grips ,multis or pliers to bend the edges up then seal with silicon.
Either way they may look a bit rough but they will do the job and should be cheaper than buying or getting one made.

When the boss bought a ch***** lathe a few years ago it came with shallow tray but with a modest amount of swarf on it, coolant used to overflow locally due to its flimsyness and lack of depth.

We went to our sheetmetal subby and got a tray and splashback folded that were larger than the entire machine by a couple of inches, then bonded them onto 19 MDF. The MDF eliminated the originals dreadfull rattle from the thin sheet parts.

Cost us about $20 for sheet, and about 10 minutes work on the guilotine and press. They even welded the corners although we anticipated doing that when we got them back.

Hi Snowy, I use the "clean-up" trays used at restaurants. They are fluid, heat, and scratch resistant as well as being able to easily clean, light weight portable and cheap. I paid $1.00 Cdn. about 34 years ago and they are still being used almost daily. Wayne

I fitted an oil tray of the sort used under cars in the garage, bought from Repco or somewhere. Folded galvo with rolled edges. Drilled holes in the corners and sandwiched it between the lathe and the stand I made.

Cheers,

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I was thinking of getting a lathe stand (as sold by Hare and Forbes or McJing). This would take care of both the stand and the swarf tray problem.
Does any one have one of these stands? Are they up to the job?

I need to visit both places soon to get some tooling for the lathe so could pick one up at the same time.

They are all too low for my liking.

I made up my lathe stand out of 150 x 150 x 6mm rhs legs with 16mm thick plates top and bottom, and used a
200UB-27kg for the bed support. I had some 16g gal folded up the same dimensions as a factory Myford drip/chip tray, and it all works well. With buying the steel as seconds, the cost was less than a H&F stand and is at the correct height for me. The height measures 950mm to the top of the rhs, which puts the bed at 1125mm from the floor. I am quite tall so this may not suit all, but machinery height is a big factor IMO if you need to avoid vatigue/back pain etc. I will try to post a pic tonight for clarity.

The height factor is one I hadn't considered but looking at some of the lathe groups on Yahoo, there are a few mentions of the optional bench being too low. I'm 188cm tall.

No metal working facilities available to me so it I'll try one in timber and see how it works out. Also a steel one may be a bit too heavy as the lathe is going on a timber floor.

I've had a quick look at bench building in the forums but most of the designs are for something much fancier than I need which is basically a tall, strong table - with a few drawers.

I am quite tall so this may not suit all, but machinery height is a big factor IMO if you need to avoid vatigue/back pain etc. I will try to post a pic tonight for clarity.

Here you go.

The first two pics show the tray and the steel farme. I wil get around to painting it some day. I have all the paint etc, but just needed to get the thing working as I use it daily.

The other pics show the concrete plinth I put under the moticer. I raised it 125mm which is a suitable height for me.

I am not keen on your idea of a timber base on timber floor. You really do need a strong foundation to get the most from your lathe.

Can you reinforce the floor framing, lay a concrete plinth, and then buy the fabricated stand you mentioned previously?

Fossil, Thanks for the pics.
When I installed a green tongue floor in the room about 18 months ago, I added some extra bearers made of 200x65 LVL. This involved building an extra brick pier which will be right under the planned lathe position.

Cutting a hole in the floor to use a plinth may be pushing the friendship with the landlord

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

I was thinking of getting a lathe stand (as sold by Hare and Forbes or McJing).
Does any one have one of these stands? Are they up to the job?

Hi Snowy,
I bought a stand with my H&F lathe. They offered me a standard one at an exhorbitant price and a low one at a screaming discount, "because the chinese factory had got the dimensions wrong!".
I chose the low one and made up a set of drawers to raise the lathe to a proper working height, so now I have a place for my tooling, measuring equipment, accessories etc.
Cheers
Graeme