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Keeping Chips Out Of Lathe Steady Rest

QualE

Plastic
Joined
Sep 29, 2020
I am not a machinist. I have a degree in electromechanical engineering, but I have somehow been promoted to Quality Engineer for our metal shop. I track nonconformance data and our lathes have the most issues by far. The majority of problems are from chips getting between the rollers on the steady rests and the workpiece. Surface damage, nicks, dings, etc. Our main steady rests are made by SMW Autoblok. Our manufacturing engineer doesn't have any suggestions, our machine operators (not machinists) know there is a problem and are willing to try something, but aren't too motivated to look into it. My Google skills must be lacking because I have not been able to find a good way to keep the chips out of the rollers. I'm thinking maybe a wipe or brush. Our fabricator doesn't seem to keen on the idea of fabbing something up. Are there any accessories that I can purchase? Any creative or effective ideas that have worked for any of you? We can't use compressed air or blowers for safety concerns.
 
Most of the guys I know prefer the brass fingers for that very reason.
What about the emory cloth trick?
 
On an engine lathe some heavy cardstock slipped over the shaft makes a nice collar to keep the chips at bay. Not sure this would work on a CNC.
 
I am not a machinist. I have a degree in electromechanical engineering, but I have somehow been promoted to Quality Engineer for our metal shop. I track nonconformance data and our lathes have the most issues by far. The majority of problems are from chips getting between the rollers on the steady rests and the workpiece. Surface damage, nicks, dings, etc. Our main steady rests are made by SMW Autoblok. Our manufacturing engineer doesn't have any suggestions, our machine operators (not machinists) know there is a problem and are willing to try something, but aren't too motivated to look into it. My Google skills must be lacking because I have not been able to find a good way to keep the chips out of the rollers. I'm thinking maybe a wipe or brush. Our fabricator doesn't seem to keen on the idea of fabbing something up. Are there any accessories that I can purchase? Any creative or effective ideas that have worked for any of you? We can't use compressed air or blowers for safety concerns.

Can't use air, how about liquid? Flood coolant or something ELSE, added just for the purpose, even?

Dead-easy even in the dry for low and slow all-manual machining.

But you said "SMW" and that hints you may be trying to hit high-throughtput CNC productivity numbers, so this may not suit your environment...

Low and slow it helps to put a sheet metal or sheet plastic disk similar to a "ballerina skirt" around the work, cutting tool / chip SOURCE - side of the rest.

As with a debris deflector on a military helicopter turbine engine air intake, the spinning disk tends to deflect and block chips, bouncing them off, or spinning them off if wet with coolant.

Downside is the "skirt" has to be manually applied to, then removed from, each workpiece in turn.

I did say "throughput" could suffer?

Next-up is brush and "lip" type wipers (think section of elastomer as a flap with a curved contact edge or "looks-like windshield wiper blade") in between the rollers on the rest itself.

Not "flat" with a straight edge. That just traps and builds-up a logjam of chips.

Needs to be curved to fit the workpiece closely while ANGLED as-in snowplow blade so chips are ejected away from the rollers.

Page Two.

Don't run your rollers in direct contact with the work at all.

Slip a ring onto it, run the rollers against the wear-ring as you would with solid bronze tips that had no rollers.

Wear ring gets grotty, true to up. Eventually you replace it with a new one.

Extra work. Throughput again.

First thing mught be to try a coolant flush stream as diverter?
 
I suppose it depends on your model but SMW sell things like spring loaded chip guards and offer options to plumb coolant up to the rollers as a sort of chip flush.
SMW Chip guard.JPG
 
Yeah, our Okuma LB has high pressure coolant that flushes out the rollers on the steadyrest. Makes a world of difference.
 
Can't use air, how about liquid? Flood coolant or something ELSE, added just for the purpose, even?

Dead-easy even in the dry for low and slow all-manual machining.

But you said "SMW" and that hints you may be trying to hit high-throughtput CNC productivity numbers, so this may not suit your environment...

Low and slow it helps to put a sheet metal or sheet plastic disk similar to a "ballerina skirt" around the work, cutting tool / chip SOURCE - side of the rest.

As with a debris deflector on a military helicopter turbine engine air intake, the spinning disk tends to deflect and block chips, bouncing them off, or spinning them off if wet with coolant.

Downside is the "skirt" has to be manually applied to, then removed from, each workpiece in turn.

I did say "throughput" could suffer?

Next-up is brush and "lip" type wipers (think section of elastomer as a flap with a curved contact edge or "looks-like windshield wiper blade") in between the rollers on the rest itself.

Not "flat" with a straight edge. That just traps and builds-up a logjam of chips.

Needs to be curved to fit the workpiece closely while ANGLED as-in snowplow blade so chips are ejected away from the rollers.

Page Two.

Don't run your rollers in direct contact with the work at all.

Slip a ring onto it, run the rollers against the wear-ring as you would with solid bronze tips that had no rollers.

Wear ring gets grotty, true to up. Eventually you replace it with a new one.

Extra work. Throughput again.

First thing mught be to try a coolant flush stream as diverter?

This is some really great info. We are an engineer to order/manufacture to order facility, so throughput is not our biggest concern. About half of our lathes are slow manual units, and those are the ones with the most problems. A wear ring could easily be slipped on. I'm partial to the wipes, but I'll run both ideas by our mfg engineers since they'll have to implement it. Coolant flush will work for the handful of CNC machines we use. Our safety guy is worried about airborne chips, but our CNCs are fully enclosed.
 
Thank you all for your responses. I was fully expecting some snarky comments about quality engineers or why I'm in charge of quality without being a machinist. I'm going to keep an eye on the replies.
 
This is some really great info. We are an engineer to order/manufacture to order facility, so throughput is not our biggest concern. About half of our lathes are slow manual units, and those are the ones with the most problems. A wear ring could easily be slipped on.
Lots of variations on that one. Leave an oversize land, finish it later. One tasking it was a modified bearing outer race, used each time that job was run. Another a rather thick device with clamping off to the side away from the steady's fingers. Collet type construction in a way. It was on a large OD and long but otherwise easily distorted thinwall tube.

Tubes also get internal plugs to keep chuck jaws from distorting their shape when clamped OR having a steady support them. Some situations, full-bore filler/support plug if thin enough even the area under the tool-tip needs support. Just another variation of turning them on a mandrel.

Most any challenge has been met a dozen ways by the many who had the same thing to cope with already, found a way of their own devising.
 
Adam Both uses a disc of gasket paper to shield the steady from chips.

His late Dad, Johnny, probably learned it from HIS Dad, given the Booth's are 3 successive generations of Master Machinists and "problem solvers".

Then again, only we oldsters even still stash gasket material 'stead of buying ready-made. I think I still have some Asbestos-filled around from the 1950's!

:D
 
I would try a rubber band or hair scrunchy as a first attempt. Maybe a rubber wrist band with the logo of your choice. For stuff like this I am a fan of aluminum foil. it molds to fit and stays put. If it works make it from something better. Many bandsaws use a unpowered rotary brush to clear chips from the blade.
Bill D
 
I would try a rubber band or hair scrunchy as a first attempt. Maybe a rubber wrist band with the logo of your choice. For stuff like this I am a fan of aluminum foil. it molds to fit and stays put. If it works make it from something better. Many bandsaws use a unpowered rotary brush to clear chips from the blade.
Bill D

"Hair scrunchy?". 'bout as much use to a bald-headed machinist as a foot peddle to a fish. Git in too much trouble already swiping panty hose to sub for coolant filters.
 
Gasket paper works okay but tends to get munched pretty rapidly if you're doing any serious roughing. I like a sheet metal backer wired to the rest, then a consumable "wiper" type piece of cardboard or gasket paper in actual contact with the shaft. I used that setup all the time roughing right up to the roller rest with nary a chip mark. Don't have any photos of the setup handy.
 
Cardboard big enough to cover the opening with holes to pop over the lock screws, and a fairly tight fit on the shaft. I had a pile of them at the hydraulic shop. Used the steady on almost every job there. Getting a chip under a roller meant rechrome.
 
You don't mention the material that you are cutting. If it is steel try a lipped tool to make the swarf curl away.
 
"Hair scrunchy?". 'bout as much use to a bald-headed machinist as a foot peddle to a fish. Git in too much trouble already swiping panty hose to sub for coolant filters.

I guess you do not want to know that many modern baby bottle nipples are silicone and can make nice gaskets and bellows seals.
Bil lD
 








 
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