Protection for lathe

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As the tool rest is moved out of the way when I apply CA, I have room to lay a piece of scrap lexan sheet of sufficient width on the ways as a cover, also long enough to cover the ways a few extra inches to either side of the "CA fling path" of my turning. This also prevents water from being flung onto the ways during wet-sanding/polishing. After use, I wipe off any residual moisture before setting the sheet aside.

Any other water-resistant material should also be suitable.
 
I use a piece of toweling over the rails of my lathe when I use a CA finish to catch any drips. A drop of CA is applied to a soft piece of toweling and applied to the blank using the slowest speed on my lathe to avoid any splattering. If you should get some CA on your rails, just take a Stanley knife blade and scrape it off once it has dried. Give your rails a coat of light machine oil, WD40, silicone or graphite spray every now and than to keep glues from sticking and to make your tail stock slide with less friction. Jim S
 
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Daddy1 said:
I will be upgrading my lathe today and was wondering how others keep their lathes protected from CA splatter.
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Paper Shop Towels over the lathe bed ways before I start finishing. I happen to use wipe-on poly but the principal is the same and I did the same when I tried CA Finish (I did not like it as much as I do the Wipe-On Poly but that's just my opinion).
 
I have a small, old towel I use to cover the lathe bed when doing any finishing on the lathe. I also use it to wipe off the lathe after turning green wood.
 
ill take my tool rest and flip it to the other side of the lathe so its totally out of the way.
moving the tailstock all the way over will usually let you flip your tool rest to the other side of the lathe.

Then ill use a peice of cheapass craft foam you buy from craft store, i cut it to perfectly fit/cover the lathe bed and such, and works perfectly and wont soak water either if you are doing acrylic wet sanding, just drips off edge or ill put a paper tower on top of foam. I usually keep foam underneath and it will catch dust/debris and ill dump in garbage
 
I have 4 small magnets (half inch diameter x quarter inch thick), two on my headstock, two on my tailstock. When I use CA, I lay a length of paper towel across the lathe ways and hold it in place with the magnets. Works like a charm.
 
I keep a roll of wax paper on my lathe. Whenever I'm doing any finishing or wet sanding I lay a sheet on my lathe bed.
 
I use a puppy pad folded up absorbes the water from wet sanding and the ca and it wont soak through I use them for changing oil and around my hit miss engines.
 
either craft foam or heavy shelf liner (same thing). Catches all the water from wet sanding and any CA drips. Clean ways, tailstock slide, and banjo occasionally as above and graphite on sliding surfaces.
 
I have used scraps of 1/4 mdf with a wood strip glued to the center that fits between the ways. I cut them to varied lengths and just drop them on the bed when finishing or wet sanding.

I use a small plastic tray from frozen meals( healthy choice and the like ) to hold water when wet sanding.

I use wider ones on the left of the tailstock to hold items like calipers, pencils ,etc when turning.
 
All great ideas here but I have another! It may ruffle some fur but here goes !

Do any of you remember the paperback book from the late eighties titled
"101 Uses For A Dead Cat" ? :cat:
Seems like a very good fix here. It would absorb all that CA and wet sanding splatter!

The work shop opens a new chapter for this book! :rolleyes:
 
I use some leftover form carpet pad to cover the lathe when using CA and when wet sanding. It also works great as a workbench pad when sanding larger items with my RA sander.
 
Addendum ... got my foam pad pack from Hobby Lobby (got the large craft foam pack) ... added some neodymium magnets (2 small ones on either end) with a little Fabri-Tac glue, and it sticks itself in place on my ways nicely. I did end up cutting it in half for space reasons to fit it on my lathe bed, but that just means I have 2 of em in case I need to cover a bit more real estate.
 
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