Swarf Control

[steamer5]

Hi guys & girls,
 In my quest to turn perfectly good steel bar into swarf on the mill, which I must say is going quite well, I was wondering what & or how you all keep your swarf & cutting fluid under control?
 I’m after something that will help me keep domestic bliss with the Domestic Goddess, she gets upset finding swarf on the carpet, not to mention the furniture! Now the shop is attached to the garage & as such a short walk thru that & I’m into the house.
I have some, less than ideal, plastic screens which only seem to get in the way & want to fall off, I have considered adding magnets to keep them in place but figure that will likely cause other issues.
I wear an apron while machining & change foot wear in the garage to stop the transport but there are sneaky bits that still make it!

Cheers Kerrin

[uuu]

Not easy. My workshop is in the house - so the coir mat I have at the door is only partly successful in stopping the curly bits from escaping.

The mill is in a cabinet, so less of a problem than the lathe, which sprays bits everywhere. Fortunately my lack of hair makes swarf bounce off the top of me.

SWMBO likes to sew, so this is my salvation. There are shards of material and thread all over the place and, if I'm lucky, I can find a lost pin on the floor and make a fuss.

Wilf

[steam4ian]

In Australia one can buy matting which is like overgrown velcro so it should be available in the UK, it's sold for industrial use.
Soft rubber mats like Yoga mats might also work.

Change your footwear at the door to the house

[miketaylor]

As a supplementary question; should the accumulated swarf go in the recycling bin or the domestic refuse??

[92220]

I keep a separate pair of heavy soled slippers for use in the workshop and change every time I go in and out. The mat that I change them on, gets vacuumed very regularly too to stop transfer into the house. As far as cleaning swarfe off the mill, a wet/dry Henry vacuum, or any other similar, that doesn't have a bag, should keep it under control. Obviously the larger bits, like drilling swarfe, will need to be removed manually.

Bob.
EDIT:   Swarfe should go in the refuse bin. It can't be recycled.

[Roger]

Using cutting oil on the lathe poses its challenges. I have Lexan screens that slot over the cross slide carriage, one short so I can still use it even when the compound slide is moved round.
I scrape the swarf into a giant strainer and leave it over a bowl to drain. It's amazing how much oil comes out!

I can't bear crunching around on swarf, so I clean up the floor a lot. I tend to use a small end for that else it leaves too much behind. It takes more time but does a good job.

Whatever you do, you're always going to tread swarf away from the workshop I'm afraid. Changing your shoes every time is probably the only way to prevent it. I just live with the occasional ticking off!

[suctionhose]

I've had the same piece of cardboard for 35 years...

[mbrown]

I have a rather useful rubber mat which is basically a grid of narrow bars so that swarf (etc) falls through to the floor and the surface I am standing on remains relatively clear. I have it in front of the machine tools because they generate the sort of swarf that gets caught up on shoes etc. I do, though, tend to get filings down my front when working at the bench, and they find their way into the house, unfortunately.

Malcolm

[jon38r80]

Regularly hoovering up the swarf from machines and floor works for me. Like Roger I hate paddling about in a mess of metal bits on the floor shoes with hard soles , a door mat in the workshop and the front door seem to manage to stop any migration. I have more trouble with wood dust that sticks to your clothes.
My shop vacuum has a bag if you want and as it will pick up all sorts I usualy use the bag to keep the filter clean and avoid continual replacement and as the hoover often picks up stuff I want to keep , screws, small parts etc etc its easier to empty the bag onto a newspaper to sort through!

[simplyloco]

Oct 28, 2020 11:38:53 GMT mbrown said:

I have a rather useful rubber mat which is basically a grid of narrow bars so that swarf (etc) falls through to the floor and the surface I am standing on remains relatively clear. I have it in front of the machine tools because they generate the sort of swarf that gets caught up on shoes etc. I do, though, tend to get filings down my front when working at the bench, and they find their way into the house, unfortunately.

Malcolm

My other half goes beresk when I've been working with cast iron and I wash my hands in the white porcelain sink. The smallest CI molecule leaves a rust stain!

[ettingtonliam]

Disposable gloves when working with cast iron, I think.

[coniston]

My workshop is in my garage with no direct access to the house so I have a short walk to the front door which seems to take any swarf off my shoes. I do keep the workshop floor brushed clean as like others I don't like crunching my way round the workshop. Mostly wear overalls which are taken off at the door. I mostly wear disposable work gloves which keeps the swarf and oil out of my skin so easier to wash hands after but they are a pain if I'm putting something small in the vice as I invariably nip a loose finger end of the glove in the vice as well.

Chris D

[runner42]

I use a wet and dry vacuum cleaner which is fine for swarf generated by gunmetal and brass, but ferrous metals produce long coil swarf which clogs the vacuum cleaner's flexible hose so I have to push an old fishing rod from each end of the hose to free it. It is ferrous swarf that produces the biggest problem since the lathe I have doesn't have power cross feed so I cannot stand away from the lathe and am invariably hit by hot swarf which burns my hands and arms and often travels with me into the house. This is in spite of the fact that I remove the top clothing and shoes before entering the house. I check carefully for swarf but it is always my dear wife that finds it, so far it has been in places in the laundry and my study, but not in the more living spaces of the house. 

Brian

[JonL]

I'm glad it's not just me that gets it in the neck for this!

[steamer5]

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the reply’s, nice to see I’m not the only one that gets in trouble!
I do have a rubber mat in front of the mill, well it’s 1/2 a matt, due to the shape of the shop a full matt got in the way of moving the bandsaw away from the wall, so cut in half one bit in front of the lathe & the other in the mill, and moving the bandsaw is easy.
I’ve been using a 50 mm face mill to make swarf....err parts.....and it’s this that happyIy throws swarf & coolent about.
Now it’s one of the lesser know Murphy laws that swarf will never fall on a matt, yes some does but the rest no way! Oh the pile is growing quick behind the cabinets I have along side the mill!
The Domestic Goddess came to see what I was up to today, & commented that she had vacuumed the shop floor last week & now there is “stuff” all over it! A quick run over the floor with a magnetic pickup got a lot of it, a vacuum is needed to get the last of it!
The quest for swarf control continues!

Cheers Kerrin

[ettingtonliam]

Having a wooden 'duckboard' in front of the machines helps, at least I'm not standing in the stuff!

[uuu]

Those rubber ribbed or gridded mats are also comfier to stand on for long periods, than a hard floor.

Wilf

[stevep]

Oct 28, 2020 22:23:02 GMT runner42 said:

I use a wet and dry vacuum cleaner which is fine for swarf generated by gunmetal and brass, but ferrous metals produce long coil swarf which clogs the vacuum cleaner's flexible hose so I have to push an old fishing rod from each end of the hose to free it. It is ferrous swarf that produces the biggest problem since the lathe I have doesn't have power cross feed so I cannot stand away from the lathe and am invariably hit by hot swarf which burns my hands and arms and often travels with me into the house. This is in spite of the fact that I remove the top clothing and shoes before entering the house. I check carefully for swarf but it is always my dear wife that finds it, so far it has been in places in the laundry and my study, but not in the more living spaces of the house. 

Brian

I gather up all my 'brass' swarf and save it in containers. After a while, I take them to the scrapyard, and that produces enough lucre to buy some soothing ale.

[ettingtonliam]

When I was machining all the gunmetal castings for locomotion I carefully gathered up all the swarf. It filled 3 of those plastic boxes that washing machine capsules come in. Unfortunately, I live so far from a 'proper' scrapyard that the fuel would cost more than I would get for the metal. I did offer it to a club member who does his own gunmetal castings but he says he can't use swarf. The boxes sit under the bench somewhere.

[Roger]

Oct 29, 2020 17:24:47 GMT ettingtonliam said:

When I was machining all the gunmetal castings for locomotion I carefully gathered up all the swarf. It filled 3 of those plastic boxes that washing machine capsules come in. Unfortunately, I live so far from a 'proper' scrapyard that the fuel would cost more than I would get for the metal. I did offer it to a club member who does his own gunmetal castings but he says he can't use swarf. The boxes sit under the bench somewhere.

Maybe you can give them to me if we ever get to meet up at on of the shows. I have a tame scrap metal merchant who can process that. These days you have to be a business and provide full details before they will deal with you.