lathechipguard

Lathe Chip Guard

Guard to keep metal chips out of the gears on your Harbor Freight 7 X 10 Mini-Lathe

The Central Machinery (Harbor Freight) 7 X 10 Mini-Lathe has a problem that is not obvious until you have used it a while. The Headstock Quill is open from one end to the other to allow turning of small rod stock which may protrude beyond the left side of the lathe. The problem with this is that the left end of the quill doesn't extend far enough to prevent chips that get inside the quill from eventually falling out into the gears. Obviously this is not a good thing because it makes your lathe run rough and replacement gears are a bit expensive.

My solution for this was to turn a short length of Schedule-40 PVC pipe (nominal 1/2 inch ID) so it is a slip-fit into the left end of the quill and extends to outside the gear cover. This retains the capability to turn long rod stock, and is easily removed for any future attachments to the left side of the headstock. The added PVC tube is just pushed in by hand, and can be pulled out with minimal effort.

This picture shows the gear cover removed and the open-ended headstock quill which lets metal chips fall into the gears.

Another view of the open-ended headstock quill.

My chip guard is 2.5 inches long with 1.5 inches of it turned to 0.080 in. You will actually need this turned to 0.079, but the last 0.001 can be turned by dressing it with a file while rotating the the lathe. This provides a very smooth fit for easy insertion and removal.

This is the finished chip guard being test-fit into the headstock quill.

The finished chip guard.

It fits perfectly after dressing (smoothing) with a file.

A perfect fit.

Replacing the gear cover.

The finished chip guard can be removed by just pulling it out, and replaced by pushing it back in place. No need to remove the gear cover for this operation.

And another view with the finished chip guard in place.