Quite often I will cut off a part on the lathe with a junior hacksaw rather use a parting-off tool, this is kinder to the machine as parting off puts a lot of strain on such a small lathe. However, its easy for the blade to slip as you break through and damage the bed if you're not careful. So, I've made a bed protector from two pieces of 6mm MDF to sit under the chuck and protect the bed from the sawblade should it slip. It will also protect the bed from being bruised by dropped chucks, its easy to drop a chuck when changing them.
Here it is in position;
And showing the underside;
Not bad for a few minutes work and some MDF offcuts. Now I need to make one for my Unimat SL.
Paul.
Clever, I need to put something together like that for mine. I see you've also made the other clever modification.... the margarine tub lid under the ways to catch small parts that do get dropped. Mind you I'm now wondering if that was something you originally suggested to me when you helped set my unimat up or if I came up with it separately.
ReplyDeleteYes, the margarine tub lid was your idea. Making the protector was only a few minutes work, but it took me a few years to actually get around to making it...
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