Compressed air at the lathe: where to place it?

[Mark Jundanian]

Mine's pretty fancy - you may not want to go to this much trouble
View attachment 71729
I jammed a length of copper pipe in a spare nozzle and added some duct tape.

View attachment 71739Mine is just a quickly turned wooden adapter that fits the standard shop vac hose and has a piece of 1/2 PEX plastic pipe hot glued into it. The PEX is a little too long and I keep forgetting to cut it off.

That looks good for dust. Do those long small nozzles get clogged up with chips?

 

[Dean Center]

A couple of people (@Bill Alston @Curt Fuller ) have mentioned making/buying small diameter adapters for shop vacuums to get dust out of hollow forms. Does anyone have an example or reference?

Look for 'computer attachments' or 'small attachments' sized for shop vacs. Like these:

 

[Lowell Fuher]

I'd say well done using metallic on everything, and grounding it all, to boot! I'm guessing you either are an electrician, or followed the advice of a good one. Buy this man a beer!

Steve, does having been a building engineer fit that qualification? Coors Light please.

 

[Dave Landers]

That looks good for dust. Do those long small nozzles get clogged up with chips?

Mine will clog right at the end, so I just take it out of the hollow form and yank off the chips. Still gets the chips out
Usually only a problem for wet side-grain forms where you get long curls.

 

[Curt Fuller]

That looks good for dust. Do those long small nozzles get clogged up with chips?

Occasionally but just at the tip.

 

[Steve Tiedman]

Steve, does having been a building engineer fit that qualification? Coors Light please.

Sure! One Coors Light, coming right up.

 

[Bill Alston]

I made an adapter to use some stainless steel tube in the nozel for my shop vac. It gets used for all sorts of things including vacuum sealing.

 

[Larry Steinmetz]

Pic of mine is attached. I like having the air near the tailstock as I do a lot of turning off of that end. On the nearby wall I have a compressed air gun and two RO sanders. If I were to mount the air on the ceiling it would be a couple feet off of the tailstock so that I could drape the coiled hose down without getting in the way of the lathe. When turning most of the time the hose is draped to a hook on the tailstock end of the lathe.

I did a search looking for how other folks run air to their lathe and came across your picture. Great looking turning area!

 

[Larry Steinmetz]

I have a compressor in my shop, but it is almost never on. About the only time I turn it on is if my car tires are low. I NEVER blow things off because it puts so much dust into the air.

robo hippy

I realize this is an older thread, but there are some good comments here, so I thought I would respond to them. I have always thought the same thing about blowing things off. I am going to have air near my lathe in my new shop set-up for vacuum chucking and will have a quick disconnect for a hose, but I would rather vacuum saw dust rather than blow it all over the shop.

 

[Darryl Fective]

After buying the shop from the widow of a woodturner/friend/neighbor, I was running some additional circuit wiring thru the attic and found lots of shards of shattered PVC pipe on top of the insulation layer. One piece even penetrated the steel pole barn siding. Must've been one hell of a bang. I wish he was still around to ask him if he was there when it let go.

I used 3/4 and 1/2" sweat-fit copper water piping for my compressor at home. I ran a couple drops in my basement workshop, and one out to my garage. I had planned something similar in my barn shop, but so far, I've just run a 50' rubber hose alongside my dust collection piping to near the lathe.

I have 8' ceiling in my shop space, but instead of hanging a shop light over the lathe, I build a large plywood box/shelf for over the lathe. It has LED tubes on the underside, and a generous shelf for chucks, paper towels, stereo receiver, etc. It also gives a "wall" space at each end for hanging tools and a track on the back for dust collection hose drop. It's not pretty, but effective.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

When I took a course from Chris Ramsey he had his air hoses on reels that you pulled out and had automatic return which prompted me to put mine on a reel. My auto return is me turning the lever to rewind handle, but it works for me.

I was going to suggest the same. I have had a 25 foot retract reel for about 15 years so when turning I can pull out enough hose for the purpose and hook the nozzle near to hand.

 

[Lowell Fuher]

I must share with you, folk, how nice it is to have air hoses on reels. I have three hoses on reels: one at each end of my shop bay and one upstairs in the storage area for cleanup. The one by the big shop door is used for everything from filling truck tires to reaching the hose bib to blow out my sprinklers in the fall. When done with the hose, it's out of the way, retracted onto its reel. Clean setup, not tripping on a hose.

As I have gotten older, tripping hazards have become an issue for me; this is an engineered safety thing. I have two pull-down power cords at ceiling level as well.

Again, my shop is CLEANER because of this design.

When I am done for the day at my lathe, I make it a habit to clean the floor into my big shop vac with the Dust Deputy on top of a 5-gallon bucket. A ten-inch bowl is equivalent to about 6 to 7 gallons of shavings, and goes right into the garbage can outside at the door.

 

[John K Jordan]

When I am done for the day at my lathe, I make it a habit to clean the floor into my big shop vac with the Dust Deputy on top of a 5-gallon bucket.

Are you available to fly to TN a couple of times a week to clean my shop? I currently clean it up about once a year whether it needs it or not.

But I don't do big bowls so the volume of shavings would be small.

JKJ