Lathe Way Wipers

[Paul Jones]

The lathe way wipers were missing on my used 12”x37” geared-head gap bed lathe. However, the lathe carriage had four pairs of 10-24 threaded holes for mounting the wipers. The holes varied slightly in position heights but already drilled and taped for use. My lathe was built in 1987 in Taiwan and is very similar the import lathes from Grizzly so I ordered my replacements for the hard rubber wipers from Grizzly. When the parts arrived, I discovered the shape of the molded "squeegee" for the V-shape and right angle sections of the ways were correctly shaped but the attachment holes were in the wrong places.

I made my own wiper retaining plates from 1/8” thick aluminum and drilled to fit the existing treaded holes in the lathe carriage. The aluminum plates were milled to fit and I added angle plate coverings for the flat wipers. Due to the the slightly uneven heights of the previously drilled holes in the lathe carriage, I used Heimann transfer screws to precisely locate the matching holes in the new aluminum retaining plates. The retaining plates are held in place using 10-24 stainless steel Button Head Socket Cap Screws. One of the photos shows the original Grizzly "squeegee" and steel plate compared to the aluminum plates and modified rubber wiper. If I had to do this again, I think it would have been easier to make the rubber wipers from 1/8” thick rubber sheet. That will be another project when these need replacement.