those drilling and machining metal often, how do you keep a clean shop?

just wondering how everyone keeps their shops clean. I have been drilling alot and using plain motor oil as a lube but It makes a mess, metal shavings and oil everywhere. What do you guys do to keep a clean shop?

 

buy a cheap shop vac that you can **** up all the shavings with thats what i do with my mill

 

what is this "clean shop" you speak of?

 

These work fairly well, and keep a 5 gallon bucket handy to drop it into.

 

x2 on the shop vac.I have some portable walls i have around my mill to keep the chips somewhat contained.Use some molly dee sparingly to help keep drills and cutters sharp.

 

At the shop where I used to work we used a wet/dry shop vac to clean the shavings and we used WD40 for lube, the wd40 cleans up easier than oil but you have to watch what your doing.

 

Dust is my nemesis. In the summer I use my leaf blower, off season just a broom and occaisional shop vac. My metal mess is in and around my bandsaw. Easy to keep after. I refuse to discuss clutter.

 

+1 on the shop vac. Last thing we did for the day after milling is to shop vac the whole machine and surrounding areas. Do it everyday so it doesn't snowball into a huge insurmountable mess

 

Practice safe and clean work conditions long enough and it becomes part of your daily work rutine. Shop vac works great for ****ing chips as your running a mill or drill press, and i use barke cleaner to clean any oil residues left over after i wipe down the machine with dispossable shop towels . Oil dry and a good broom can work wonders . I like the idea of portable walls as well. I do use very cheap 2" paint brushes to tame down the chip throwing from a lathe or mill as well . Just be careful .....

 

Get an apprentice.

 

At work, we have a floor sweeper. At home...no so much.
I've let my shop go for so long it was nearly unuseable.
Winter project is clean up so I can get back on the coupe.
I try to use cutting fluids sparingly, but air gun, sweep and wipe whenever I'm done was what I was taught and what I do at work.
Bringing that home...?? Well, sometimes it gets lost on the way.

 

Shop vac for all but the stringy stuff. Plugs up the hose. Do it often and the shop will be neat. I use the shop vac for the floor also, no broom. Painted and clean floor = no creeper. Creeper+ air hose+ elec. cords- not for me.

Fritz

 

I have had the same shop vac for 40 years (early Craftsman) it still does the job along with a broom and dust pan.

 

I'm in with the "shop vac crew" as well. The only thing I added was a momentary foot switch to turn it on. Makes it alot easier than hunting for a switch to turn it off.

 

I got a mill recently, looks like it's time to move the good shop vac from the parking garage, into the shop.

 

Use a cheap, lanolin based hand lotion as cutting fluid. Being thick, it doesn't splatter around as much as thinner cutting oils will. I know, it sounds crazy. Try it on something s**** first.

And a shop vac. At my buddy's house, we actually made a fixture to hold the shop vac nozzle near the spindle of the mill. It can be adjusted to very clkose to the cutting zone. We even have it on a foot switch so that it's easy to turn on and off with the mill.

 

We use a janitor. He uses a shop vac.

 

Indeed.

At about three month intervals, I might add.

My shop is not attached to my home though, so it's not like I'm tracking swarf into the house.

Basically, I sweep and deal with it when I can either no longer walk over the pile, or I cannot fully use one of the axes of the milling machine (because the swarf has piled up between the table and the column, for example).

I clean the lathe out when the swarf gets up to bed height, and not a moment before.

 

It's -12 out there..... maybe -10 in the shop...... I close my eyes and dream of a clean shop........ and a warm one. I've got so much stuff in the shop I can't see the floor....... There's a broom and pan somewhere in there. I think. And two Vacuums cause I lost the first

You get the idea? -10

 

I have an old Sears shop vac for my mill, and I use sweeping compound whenever possible to keep the dust down.

 

x2
when I did my apprentiship we had to clean up after every job, just got to be part of the routine, same with puttin tools away. Just good work practise
Use a water soluable cutting oil, cleans up easier

 

Ditto! keeps ya from bringing those steel chips in da house where the kids or pets will step on them... OUCH! If you have a big oil mess, use kat litter to soak it all up...

 

I keep a small magnets close by both drill presses and my band saw that collect a lot of the "s****s". Of course this only works with magnetic steel, a shop vac and broom get the rest.

I've been meaning to make a mount for under the drill press table to hold a large cookie sheet to catch s****s as well.

 

Slow the speed of the drill press, drilling is easier on the bitts! Lets them do there job with out slinging the stuff 12' away! The pic up is less with what ever the method of it: OURS' broom / shop vac / wife!

 

I have to go with just good work habits. I came out of the aerospace industry. We cleaned everything every day. I do the same at the home shop most days. A fox tail brush and dustpan, a broom, even shop rags for dusting. Sometimes a little air to get hard to reach places.

 

Buy a gallon of coolant from MSC or Mcmaster. Mix some up and put it in a trigger spray bottle. Use sparingly, just to keep the tool cool. It makes far less mess than motor oil and is easy to clean up.

 

Not hard at all, just say "Kid clean up around the ( insert machine name here) before you leave".

 

I keep the shop vac right at the mills, another at the lathe. I have those honeycomb floor mats they allow trash to fall thru so you don't track it around, lift the mat and clean often. Even still, my shop is an organized mess. When i see pics of spotless epoxied floors and a small clean workbench with brand new tools on pegboards i know that nothing is actually built in a shop like that.

 

Drill presses generally are a pain cleaning around, when I bought mine I got a bench model and mounted it to the wall with two arms and a single leg from the base of the column diagonally to the bottom of the wall. A clean sweep with the broom and the occasional vac***ing works fine, my dog makes me keep the floor swept cause I don't like it when she gets cuttings in her paws.