7X12 Mini Lathe Way Rail Chip Guard Brush Mounts

thingiverse

This part is designed to fit snugly on the left and ride side of the apron of a 7x12 mini lathe, ensuring that all your chips stay out of your gibs and rail ways as you move the apron left and right. You'll need to print two of these, but don't worry about mirroring since this is symmetrical and so is the gap it fits into. You will need to upscale this object by 12.7 times or with an X, Y, Z of 101.6mm x 31.74mm x 10.38mm. With this scaling, it'll fit the 7x12 perfectly, and you'll have press-fit 12mm magnets. The apron has a 2" gap, allowing you to see right down between the rail ways. This piece sits on top of the apron and fits between that gap, keeping it in place. I'm using two 12mm x 2mm neodymium magnets glued into the circular cutouts on the underside of my part. These keep them in place but let you remove them to clean them as necessary. The multiple holes cut out are for mounting a sponge brush or gluing in bristles. I personally recommend using a sponge brush, the same type used for painting. They're thick enough if laid flat to push down onto the rail ways without binding tension and pulling the brush guide off. Using a sponge offers an added bonus: once oiled, it keeps chips away and oils your rail ways too. I connected two holes with two staples and then attached the sponges using black RTV Silicone. You can use a full sponge across or two 2" sponges for either side of one of the brush mounts. This design works on my Grizzly 8688 7x12 Mini-Lathe, which is the "made in China" model sold by many other companies. I believe SIEG is the original company. This should work on all 7x12 mini-lathes, but that's why I included the original .blend file so you can play with it. In the picture, you can see the part under my finger. I don't have magnets installed, so I had to push it down, but it gives an idea of where it goes and what it'll do for you. You can also see the chip guard I made for the apron hand wheel gears here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1905460. UPDATE: I'm adding two magnet holes to the front to further aid in keeping chips up front, but so far, I've carved off a lot of material and have nothing that has gotten more than halfway under the sponge brushes. I posted a pic showing the results. Adding oil to the sponges keeps the lathe ways oiled nicely and helps keep the chips under control. Seriously, this is the best mod I've made for a tool!