On Fri, 1 Jun 2007 17:57:25 -0400, (Arch) wrote:

I reckon the king and I are commoners and slobs at heart so now the
lathe is covered with dried lacquer, glue and chips, my face mask is
clouded and my shirt is dirty with pockets full of chips.

Somehow, we both seem not to mind our mess. We hope that at least it
shows that whether or not we do it well, we actually do turn wood.

Well, at least I'm not the only one!

I have to wonder what the guys at the recycling center (who run our
garbage disposal service as well) think when they get a two-yard
dumpster filled level full with shavings, sawdust and metal chips
every three or four months. The real story is simplicity itself- the
turnery gets piled with chips until it looks like it's been attacked
by a heavy snowstorm, and then I rent a dumpster and shovel it out
with snow shovel into the dumpster.

Slobbish? Of course- but that's why the lathe is in it's own room.
It was just flat-out costing too much money to sweep up after every
project and send the shavings in the regular garbage. It was nice to
put them on the curb for the neighbors before I started playing with
non-ferrous metal on it, but now the debris is no good for gardening,
so it just has to go out in the trash.

I *did* stop finishing on the lathe when I got my big one, so at least
there are no laquer or glue chips on it. I was kind of mad at myself
when I saw what lathe finishing had done to my midi lathe, and it took
several hours to clean it up before I sold it. Not to mention the
condition of the wall behind it!