Blowing the dust away

[Lonsdale73]

I have Record Power lathe which has the motor mounted beneath the lathe bed and gathers an enormous amount of dust and shavings in the 'fins' around the housing and can be a bugger to brush out. I don't own nor have neither any other need nor space for a bulky compressor (the one I did own for a short while had a label on it saying "Keep away from dust!") so I'm looking (cheap) suggestions for blowing the dust out of my lathe's sensitive and hard to reach parts. I had screwed a baton to a piece of ply to sit on the lathe bed to prevent shavings dropping on to the motor and that works great on pieces longer than the housing itself but has to be removed when working on shorter lengths and bowls.

 

[Dalboy]

Rather than blow it away why not have a vac and make an adaptor to fit the vac and reach the fins better than blowing dust everywhere

 

[CHJ]

Blowing dust is never a good idea, not only for your health reasons but dust that has just 'settled' on equipment and vents risks being blown deeper into the internals.
Motors, electronics and bearings etc. would rather not have stuff deliberately forced past any baffles or seals.

 

[Richard_C]

My Record lathe has (as standard) a thin metal plate just above the motor but under the bed, a little wider than the bed-gap and sloping downwards away from the drive belt end. That keeps most of the big stuff off the motor itself.

If you open the belt guard (assuming you have a DML type or similar lathe) as you would for a speed change but take the belt off over the end of one of the pulley sets, the motor drops down a fair bit and is much easier to clean around. Takes just a moment during a speed change.

I use a vac with a nozzle for most cleaning. An old paintbrush and a SHF* helps sometimes.

*SHF = Standard Human Finger.

 

[bobblezard]

I use a vacuum with a soft brush head on it to clean the motor fins on my Maxi

 

[Lonsdale73]

My Record lathe has (as standard) a thin metal plate just above the motor but under the bed, a little wider than the bed-gap and sloping downwards away from the drive belt end. That keeps most of the big stuff off the motor itself

That's interesting, which model do you have? My original question related to the entry-level DML250 and yes, I'd used a vac fitted with a crevice nozzle, aided and abetted by a selection of paint brushes but still found I wasn't clearing all the dust away. However, yesterday I picked up a DML320. That doesn't have the thin metal plate you speak of but nor does the motor housing have the dust-trapping fins of the DML250, using instead a smooth surfaced cylinder. No doubt dust won't just slip right off but should be easier to brush off. I say "should"...

 

[clogs]

I've noticed via YouTube that a lot on there use a JET lathes........
who in their right mind would want a motor directly in line with the chuck....!!!!!
there's always gonna be dust dragged in the motor anyway.....
but it needs.......
A, keeping out of the way.....
B, some form of shield protection as STANDARD.....
When I lived in Calif years ago JET had just come out......didn't take long before their stuff was up for sale USED....
Prob better qual now but like the Lathe badly designed....it was at least 1/2 the price of the Yanky kit......
They even started to fit Boldoor motors to help sell em.....
I used to trouble shoot for engineering companies......
biggest probs.....
the guy that does the drawing and or design dosen't use the machines and then those Accountants finish off a bad job by cutting costs....
I just like the old stuff, steady n heavy....
sorry....

 

[Richard_C]

That's interesting, which model do you have? My original question related to the entry-level DML250 and yes, I'd used a vac fitted with a crevice nozzle, aided and abetted by a selection of paint brushes but still found I wasn't clearing all the dust away. However, yesterday I picked up a DML320. That doesn't have the thin metal plate you speak of but nor does the motor housing have the dust-trapping fins of the DML250, using instead a smooth surfaced cylinder. No doubt dust won't just slip right off but should be easier to brush off. I say "should"...

It's a DML 305, sort of bigger 250. Attached photos, I took it out so you can see the construction, should be a doddle to make one, all you need is a bit of aluminium or similar, you might even be able to use beer or sardine cans. Take a rectangular flat piece of whatever, at the half way mark cut 1/3 in from each side, cut to adjacent corners out, fold a bathtub shape for one half (sits at the headstock end) and leave the rest flat but bent down a little. On mine there is a cross piece in the casting and a single setscrew to locate it, but gravity would do the job just as well. Interesting that is wasn't mentioned in the assembly instruction or diagrams so maybe a recent modification. I've not 'cleaned up' for the photos and I was mid job so you can see it does a pretty good job of keeping shavings off the fins.

All engineering design is a compromise - I guess the 3 people on Apollo 11 wished it was made of thicker stuff but it had to be light enough to lob it up into space. The DML range is designed to be compact and self contained, so you can fit one on a conventional workbench and move it about if you have to. Putting the motor where it is helps achieve that compactness at sensible cost. I doubt they set out to do a bad design job. I've not seen any complaints about motor failures.