Lathe: Power Cable

I really dislike how the power cable goes through the motor cover and lathe bed to get to the control box. It means whenever I want to remove the motor cover I also need to remove the control box to disconnect the power cable. It makes much more sense to me to simply connect the power cable directly to the control box.

Power cable in place and bolted to the control box.

With the chip tray removed there was plenty of room to route the power cable under the lathe and to the bottom of the control box. I drilled a 1/2" hole and made a bracket out of aluminum which was riveted into place. The old cable hold down bracket was then used to bolt the cable to it.

Lathe: Chip Tray

I hate the chip guard on my lathe. It's not shallow enough, and the chuck can easily grab the chips and throw them around. I've ended up with chips in my hair too many times because of it. So I removed it. The motor cover has vent holes on its end, so I formed a piece of aluminum to cover it and deflect chips.

Aluminum chip deflector riveted in place.

While I was at it I also removed the chip tray. It serves absolutely no propose and just made things harder to clean up. It was fairly easy to remove the tray and reinstall the legs themselves.

Both chip guard and chip tray removed.

It hasn't been any harder to clean up, and it definitely makes it easier to work with and to clean up afterward. The only downside is I'm still looking for a good place to put the DRO control box.