Chip pan question

I've seen a lot of photos of different mills/lathes with voluminous chip pans.

I find myself wondering if people have to rake/shovel the swarf out of them, or do they have panels in the base that can be slid/dropped to let the swarf fall into a bucket?

Being able to push the chips down into a bucket through a hole seems a lot easier than pulling them up and out of the pan.

Is this one of those features that is so obvious that no one mentions it, or has it never occured to a manufacturer to make it easy on the machine owner to clean out the swarf?

I do realize that if a lot of coolant is used any trap door in the bottom of the pan will need a good seal so coolant doesn't leak all over. But it seems like the opening could be raised an inch or so above the floor of the pan so that coolant has a chance to drain before rising to the level of the trapdoor, and still leave it pretty easy to push the chips down and out.

cheers,
Michael

If I had my druthers I prefer a chip pan that has a slope the chips will repose on so they drain, then has a lip I can use to drag them into what ever I use to haul chips in; be it a coffee can, a three yard skip box, or something in between. Hoes scaled to fit the machine's chip pan are usually the simplest way to move the chips from where they collet to whear they can drain to the chip conveyance whatever form that may take.

I like the chip pan to have a smooth, all steel surface without weld beads or obstructions to hinder chip handling. It's nice to have it pitched to the liquid drain and away from the chip handling area.

Poking a ball of haywire chips through a sharp edged hole in the chip pan is something like packing butter up a wildcat's butt with a hot knife - it might be possible but there's less strenuous - and injurious - ways to spend your time.

I used to hate cleaning chips out of a Bullard Cutmaster VTL. There was only a clearance space of 8" or so between the machine and the splash guard. The splash gard lifted out in panels but there were risers for the coolant and structeral support it the way all the way around. The home made hoes we made of skinny steel rods and hunks of flat bar were a PITA too. You could wear heavy leather gloves but the ribbon-like nickel aluminum bronze chips were like razor wire and they'd rip your gloves and shirt sleeves to shreds when they didn't cut you to the bone.

Pick up on graveyard and the machine would be piled high with packed chips ("Sorry, didn't have time to bail out the chips." Yeah right) and you'd spend your first hour with bolt cutters and hooks and shovels and wreck three corn bristle brooms before you'd find the bottom. I'd get even by tipping the boss; the next night the graveyard guy would be in the weld booth on the spray weld lathe and come out of all that dust and dirt looking like a depression era coal miner.

HAAS has a beautiful little combo CNC/manual lathe that has an incline instead of a chip pan. Everything just slides or is pushed out the back end into whatever you place there. I thought that was the most wonderful feature of the whole thing.

I'm just bumping along with 3 Costco commercial type cookie sheets to catch chips and remove them.

Starting the night shift on a machine that's been
packed in. Heh.

I was running an Okuma NC lathe and this was
a regular feature. The shop was turning nylon
parts and we would put chips from the machine
into 30 gallon trash cans, and from there into
a compactor to bale them for recycling.

The compactor was busted, and I came in to find
a note to run both Okumas and to just 'fill up
the trash cans' while working. Both machines
were packed full of course.

By the end of the night there were 8 30 gallon
trash cans in the center of the floor, with a
pile of chips on top of them about three feet
high. I think they got the message because after
that the machines tended to be clean about half
the time.

We used to clean out the VMC (hurco) by climbing
inside with a snow shovel.

Jim

If I had my druthers I prefer a chip pan that has a slope the chips will repose on so they drain, then has a lip I can use to drag them into what ever I use to haul chips in; be it a coffee can, a three yard skip box, or something in between

Click to expand...

Well I know it's small but my South Bend 10" is exactly that. The oil will flow to the right side of the 4' chip pan and all the sharpies basically fall to the left below the chuck. Also the bed is level so it appears that was designed. Imagine that, a detailed design. Don't see much of that. JRouche

micheal;
the best chip pan is one someone else cleans out,too bad there aren't too many union shops around anymore.
fadal has a pretty good setup the chip pan angles up away from the strainer.
i have made a inverted pan of expanded metal to keep the chips away from the strainer and allow the coolant to flow less impeded, although i have never used a pan that was really efficient. the small chips clog the strainer and cause the coolant to backup sometimes to the point of starving the coolant pump.
i think that having a trapdoor to evacuate the chips out would be more of a pain than using a small shovel to clean the chips out. cut off the handle of the largest shovel that works, if you have acess to a blacksmith she/he can whip out a perfect size for you just make a pattern. or a trenching tool from army surplus would be ideal if only it was wider
i usually dont clean the chip pan out until the chips are being shoved around by the table...jim

"Poking a ball of haywire chips through a sharp edged hole in the chip pan is something like packing butter up a wildcat's butt with a hot knife - it might be possible but there's less strenuous - and injurious - ways to spend your time." That is very well stated.

While not a chip pan, my new lathe has a conveyor that is the greatest thing since sliced bread. No Muss No Fuss. I have yet to pick up any thing off the floor, coolant or chips. Now I got to get rid of these 30 gal. cans I am starting to collect.

My 11x36 Logan/Powermatic is a cabinet model and has a HUGE chipwell that weighs a ton by itself. I knew it would have been a bear to keep clean plus not having a splash shield I figured I could take care of both issues at once:


I used some 3/4" electrical conduit to make the frame and pop rivited the galv steel to it and then siliconed the seams. Behind the front bedrail is a drain that has some hardwarecloth around it to keep chips out. Right now there is just a can sitting under the drain in the larger chipwell.

There are 2 legs off the back which clip over the back wall of the large chipwell. I can easily pick it off and carry the entire thing out the door and tip it over the trash container.

Best,
Rick

Buckshot,
I realy like the backsplash. Hope you dont mind if I use the idea?

In my first shop class way back in JR High Mr. Jason (the teacher) had bent up some simple catch pans (cookie sheet sized) that had a few holes punched in the center with a piece of window screen framed in on the bottom so the fluid could drain. Made cleanup nice and quick. Especialy when class was just 45 minutes long. I was always staying after school to do stuff.
John

.........johnnydmetal, " I realy like the backsplash. Hope you dont mind if I use the idea?"

Heck no, I'd be honored

Best,
Rick

I have a SB9 and installed a couple of shallow 10 x 12 cake pans between the legs and a couple of risers on the bench top. This elevates them about 2" above the benchtop and I have a 2" diameter hole in the bottom of each on the inside of the legs. I bought a large SS cake pan with gentle (45*) sides and no sharp corners to put between the legs and under the other two pans. The leg pans drain into the larger central pan and it is easily pulled out for dumping into the trash. With no sharp corners for chips to collect, it cleans easily. I keep coolant flow to a minimum so it usually just gets dumped out with the chips.

The holes in the leg pans are big enough to brush the chips through (3" paint brush - cheap) and any coolant just drains on it's own. Then I vacuume the bench top (use a 2" hose). Almost no coolant or oil on bench but some splatters on my backsplash (sliding plastic doors).

I installed a pan with a drain hole on my Unimat but, with my meger use of coolant, it has never been necessary.

Paul A.

Another reason for off shifts to leave chip build up is that it slows the machine. Back in '67, I worked at Chrysler's engine plant in Trenton, Michigan. Was assigned to run a machine that turned raw castings into A/C compressor brackets. Picture a 6" turntable with about 8 pedestals surrounded with mills, drills, tappers, spotfacers, etc. Production was 510 brackets per shift. You could get production about 15 minutes before quitting time. One day the machine broke and I was told to stand by for repairmen. After waiting 30 minutes, I started cleaning the chips from the turntable. 2 hours later, I discovered the table had been covered with chips about 2 feet deep. After the repairmen departed I discovered the machine's time to cycle the table was less than half. Production was attainable about 1/2 hour after lunch. There must have been 3/4 ton of chips on that table. The two old-timers on the other shifts were not very happy with me.

mike in michigan;
what was the matter with those guys didnt they know how to pace themselves? ...jim