|
Think wheels.? I have my mini lathe on a HF cabinet that provides storage for all the accessories that one tends to accumulate.? 3d printer mounted on a rolling cabinet from Home Depot that provides storage for all the stuff that you accumulate with that discipline.? My other large power tools (bandsae, RAS) are mounted on castors.? My work bench is also a fold away type.? Anyways, keep in mind you aren't buying just a mini lathe - you are buying/making a lot of other stuff that you will be using with the lathe.
On Saturday, December 30, 2023 at 09:57:04 AM PST, Paul Fox <pgf@...> wrote:
My small shop is decidedly mixed-use:? wood work (manual, plus occasional CNC milling), some electronics (Raspberry Pi type stuff), general homeowner workbench use, and, hopefully someday soon, machining. So, in thinking about getting a mini lathe, I'm trying to think about how it will fit into my shop, in various ways.? And I'm sure other folks here have had the same issues. The first is simply space:? my shop is "cozy".? I think it's about 12' x 12' out of a longer room that also holds our furnace and laundry machines.? I have two workbenches, a band saw, a grinder/sander, and a drill press in that space, and some low cabinets which currently hold my CNC mill at chair height.? The lathe will live either where the CNC mill is now (but currently that would mean sitting and/or leaning to use it, rather than standing), or on one of the work benches (but that means losing the other uses of that bench while doing lathe projects). It might also be able to live crosswise at the end of one of the benches, since the benches are about as deep as the lathe will be wide, but I'm not sure how practical that will be. Thoughts on any of that?? Is sitting in front of a lathe a no-no?? It works for the CNC mill, but they're somewhat different animals. Second, other than hand tools and drill press, the lathe will be the first metal machining equipment I've introduced to the shop.? Clearly I'll want a good cover for the lathe when it's not in use, since it will basically be a magnet for sawdust and dryer lint, otherwise. But it will also be generating a lot of chips and swarf.? How controllable is that?? Is a "dust collection" solution possible?? I assume most of the chips land under the lathe, but how much get launched several feet away?? My shop vac doubles as dust collector for the bandsaw and mill, and since I wanted really good dust collection, it's a Fein, and has a bag.? But its hose is just 1-3/8". That's okay for sawdust, but I'm picturing it jamming up with long swirls of swarf if I use it around the lathe.? Will it be at all useful? What tricks/techniques do you all use for controlling machining mess? (I've been watching a bunch of YT videos, and was really hoping Blondihacks had covered this -- it would be right up her alley.? But haven't found anything, really, by her or anyone else.) And finally -- a lathe storage question.? Floor space is at a premium in my cellar, not just in the shop, so if I want to move the lathe elsewhere (to free up its workbench, or to use the CNC mill instead), it occurs to me that storing the lathe on end might make finding space easier.? Can that be done? I know -- too long, too many questions in one post.? Sorry! paul =---------------------- paul fox, pgf@... (arlington, ma, where it's 41.9 degrees) |
