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Unimat SL lathe. Carriage leading screw cover.

Y.T.

Y.T.

Joined
Sep 3, 2018
Messages
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Location
Toronto, Canada
Unimat lathe has its leading screws exposed. This is an unfortunate feature that I wanted somehow to fix. Sometimes I don’t want to use Unimat lathe just because I have too much chips to clean. Attached pictures show what I had come up with to cover a short leading screw. If you have some ideas how to cover the long leading screw please post it here.

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When I used my Unimat to bore holes ]down the center of cold rolled steel rod, I wanted to limit the mineral oil kerf lube and the curls - I used heavy oven grade Aluminum foil and molded it into the hollows and up just high enough to avoid moving parts. It worked about as well as anything could - but I still had to dissemble and clean - no fun atoll - time consuming - tedious.
 
thats a neat solution yt. i also like the tin foil cover too. easy peasey.

i used a soda straw to cover the screws... i cut the length to my chuck stop and my tool to center distance.

screw cover.jpg

i did see a screw cover that automatically retracts n expands as you move.... not for us but check out the idea of this?




 
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You know Roger, this may work out.

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If each section of the tubing has a slightly different length - the largest being the shortest and the next a finger tip grip longer - getting them pulled back to max length will not drive you crazy with frustration.
 
telescoping brass tube may work but it wont retract n expand evenly because it hasnt got an inner lip to pull n push the next section to follow.

the lead screw is 1/4", if metric would be slightly over 1/4"

i think my grand daughter has some collapsible straws or some kind of toy that used them.

im sure one of us will find the solution... stay tuned?
 
Elegant solutions! I've long been a fan of tinfoil shielding for my lathes. I use it when turning wood and plastic on my metal turning lathes as well. Once the sawdust hits the lubed lead screws, there's hell to pay to clean it all up.
 
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