I used my SL for many hundreds of horizontal drilling operations without any problems. Never thought twice about it. I had a work holding jig in place of the toolpost and the drill held in a collet on the spindle. Never noticed any swarf on the quill, and there was no evidence of wear. I also used it for many hours of polishing with a small?Scotchbrite-like wheel , with abrasive in it. The only thing I did to protect the lathe from abrasive dust was to clean it down when I'd finished. I had far more debris around when I was turning lots of tiny flywheels for model railway use. I kept having to regularly stop and uncover the main bars, buried in brass chips.
?
I don't believe these machines are that fragile. You can see if something is causing a problem and do something about it. You can also see when there is no problem and just carry on.
