CNC Bantam - containing the chips and coolant

The recent trials have gone well and I seem to have a functional CNC lathe on my hands. However, the swarf coming off the work is hot and gets flung far and wide. The cross slide extension piece machining has left nasty blue ribbons all over the shop, literally. Time to think about the next steps in the lathe conversion ie refitting the various chip guards etc.

On the std machine, the rear splash guard (7) simply clips on the back of the chip tray and is supported at its top by a "splash guard extension piece" (8) that hangs off the headstock.

As I've pimped up my machine with a larger (3kW) motor, the splash guard extension piece will need to be spaced away from the rear of the motor if it's going to be able to draw any cooling air into its fan. That will require me to do some simple sheet metalwork. The main splash guard itself can simply slide along the chip tray, so no work is needed in it.

Positioned something like this mockup. The new gap is clearly visible - about 20mm or so:

There we go. Bit of loominum and some pop rivets and Bob's your auntie.

That's only a part of the solution though. I'm going to need something at the front and top too, as chips were being thrown in all directions. Some sort of "up and over" cover perhaps? Note that few (none?) of the various control knobs have any purpose now, so access to those really isn't going to be necessary

Off with the knob:

Of course, having spent the last week or so designing and machining up the cross slide handwheel extension with the precise intent to enable me to reconnect the micrometer handwheel, it now looks as if it's one of the few things preventing me from fitting a full frontal shield that would drop down over the chip tray. Besides, it has little purpose on a CNC machine other than making the machine appear to have a mind of its own. And it was a nice test piece for checking out the new CNC features.

I'm now going to jettison the handwheel and the nosepiece it is mounted on (bizarrely described as a "keep" in the parts list - go figure). When I'm at it, I'll also remove the selector lever from the front of the screwcutting gearbox. As well as being obsolete, it's the only other feature that protrudes where a front screen would need space. I'll simply remove it and its friends and keep them in a bag with the other stuff I've stripped off.

Sorted. I will need to make up a bung to keep shit out of the gearbox at some stage. Tissue will have to do for now...

Looking up the bed, it's clear there's a bit more room to play with here:

Obvs the cross slide will still overhang the saddle somewhat when it's at G28 / full retract but at least there's no pointless handwheel sticking out. I can now imagine a splashguard at the front of the machine (hinged at its base?), up to the height of the bed ways. And a (rear hinged?) top guard that drops down to meet it, perhaps.

I've got some of that corrugated polycarbonate sheet material, so I can make up a (hopefully) workable arrangement. If that looks good, I can get myself some clear polycarbonate sheet. One step at a time....