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I have been thinking about this for a long time and then I dreamed about how to keep the chips from the wood lathe from spraying all over the barn and filling my steel storage shelves and other places.. I have job coming up that has a lot of bark on it and will be throwing a fair amount of chips when I crank up the speed. So, I stopped and built this today and tried it out an hour ago and it is quite successful at herding all the chips in front of it.

It is made from a Harbor Freight blue tarp,some thin wall conduit, casters, Baltic birch plywood and some melamine covered plywood. The poles are 5 ft. high and have wire hooks on the top to hold up the tarp!!

I turned the towers on the face plate and used the faceplate to spot the mounting holes into the bottom plates with the wheels. I use the same holes for both turning and mounting. The 3rd shot shows how I have all my face plates set up- with a 1/8" pin in the center that locates anything that gets mounted to it. You can take a part off and put it back on and it is well centered again.

The white base plates were cut from some melamine covered plywood that I could not find any other use for.
I was going to put in T nuts for the casters that have a 5/16-18 threaded stud on them, but instead I just tapped the plywood with my cordless drill.

cheers, Jim

Gallery

Comments

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Good thought process Jim.
Seems like just the ticket to keep the chips from "falling where they may". :)

Of course you had to make them pretty too…...
I like 'em.
 

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Great idea Jim, that is just what I need.
Thanks for sharing.

Bob
 

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Jim, you are so right with those flying chips, especially the bark. Everyone should have something to stop some of it from flying around the shop. A great idea to help keep the shop clean.
Looks like you were making vessels with those plywood towers. ha ha
I use 3 old shades and pull them down when turning logs. I have a low ceiling. I think it's time for some new ones.
 

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Hey Jim, I hung my tarps from the ceiling. Stops the spray from the wet wood as well.
 

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Good idea… Good solution…
 

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Jim, Great Idea….Those Chips Fly Everywhere!!!! Jim you sometimes mention a Barn. In Australia a Barn is on a Farm. A large shed for Animals or storage, is that the same thing where you are? I get the impression you have two work areas….Sorry to be nosy, I just find Workshops and Sheds very interesting and love hearing about them and how they are set up.

Great Construction Pictures. Did you need to fit weights to the feet or was the weight of the feet and casters enough to give each pole good holding power?

Great Project Jim!!!!!!!

Regards,

Cliff.
 

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What a brain! When I have a really messy thing mounted up, I usually roll the SS out onto the driveway. That way, it's easier to sweep up. Unless it's windy. And the wind always comes up, as soon as one picks up a broom. We all know that.
 

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I like those feet. Nice solution.
 

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Looks like a good workable idea Jim, I work outside in the open in Summer time but in Winter have a very messy shed. Must give something like this a thought.
 

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It will work, I use green house plastic because it is free. now that my new lathe is outside I will just put a piece on the ground and will make cleanup even easier.
 

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There's no much you can do, but this is very simple and efficient solution. I like the shape of those stands.
 

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I've been thinking about this myself Jim. Great idea, I may have to copy it. Great work
 

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Thank you all for the nice comments! it keeps me from doing a lot of vacuuming of the steel rack which is non value added work!! The little time spend on the screen will save me day of work in the long run.

Hi John. I have a huge tarp hanging behind the lathe that keeps the chips out of my boat that is right behind it. On the front I need something portable because a lot of things are moved along that corridor.

Hi cliff, the stands will tip over if you pull on the tarp, but they roll easily out of the way so I think I'll not need any more weight on the bottom. I had thought about wider bases but the melamine board was only14" wide- a design constriction!!
The barn is for work and storage, but no animals except for when the neighbor;'s cat that wonders in when the doors are open. It is a Pole Barn. It is made by boring holes in the ground and then standing up rows of 6×6 treated posts and building onto them to form a barn. It has 2 8' high overhead garage doors, a man door, concrete floor, water, electric, floor drains and a wood burning furnace. I have a microwave for drying wood in there too. There are 4 lathes in the barn, a welder, a set of Oxy- Acetylene torches and a metal cut off wheel., an overhead electric lift….... 2 cars, 2 tractors and trailer and a boat!! Oh, and lots of wood round an flat!!

Hi Bob, I used to roll the other lathe outside but with this new lathe station, it is just too heavy, although it is on wheels. When I was outside, the sun was too bright and the wind would blow the chips all over the place and I'd sweep forever..

Hi Ivan, I thought I'd give the stands a touch of the Fonz and make 'em Cool!!

Cheers, Jim
 

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Good one Jim. I had a similar thing many years ago when I did a little spray painting. I hung a tarp like that from the ceiling and let it hang to the floor. I taped a 1/2" or 3/4" pvc pipe as long as the tarp at the bottom by the floor. It would roll up to the ceiling nicely with the pvc pipe taped to the tarp, then a few bungee cords kept it at the ceiling until the next time I needed it. Handy dandy, and out of the way, but, within reach whenever it was needed.

OH, the little weight of the pvc pipe held it in place at the floor and kept it taught.
 

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Jim, this is a good idea and a nice addition to your shop. I wonder if we'll ever finish our shops. I seriously doubt it. Nice work.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com
 

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I used to install equipment in chicken houses and we used plastic but thicker to make curtains so If you lathe stays in one place screw some small pulleys to the ceiling and attach some thing heavy to the bottom we used 1/2" conduit attach some string to the bottom and you can raise and lower it to get it out of the way when not being used.
Nail the end of the string to the ceiling come down under the conduit back up throw the pulley and when you pull on the string the plastic will roll up all nice and pretty.
 

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A very practical solution to your chip problem Jim.
 

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Great idea for controlling the chips.

If I needed something like that, I would mount some EMT (Electrical conduit) - bent to the shape needed-from the ceiling and make curtains out of TYVEK (of course) and hang them from the conduit with shower curtain hooks. I guess 1/2 inch PVC pipe could also be used.

They could be drawn back and stored out of the way when not needed and wouldn't require the stands. Weights could be added to the bottom of the curtain.

Just a thought.
 

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Hey Jim As usually you have that gray matter in high gear,great idea.
 

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Nice and handy chip blocking device that will make chip cleanup a lot easier ,now is it behind you or behind the lathe when in use the pictures kind of confuse me .
You always get too fancy with your woodwork for shop fixtures and tools . LOL

Klaus
 
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