My bench where I build my rods is indoors, in Houston Texas it is HOT. It is unbearable often to be outside in the summer. I had an extra bedroom so this seemed like a wise choice.

I recently started getting into creating cutom handles, doing lathe work is there any way to do this indoors without creating a mess.....e.g. hook up a shop vac, I thought I recalled a few of the ol' timers on here saying they work indoors on there lathe.

Thanks,
Jeffrey

Jeffrey, search under Tom's name on the photo page. He shows a setup utilizing a box fan and pleated filter to collect dust.

Regards......Doug@
TCRds

Hello Jefferey,
After seeing Tom's set up with the Fan I use it on my lathe, drill press, sander, and so on. I know have a clean room but I still use Tom's set up just to keep the dust down. It works great and if you don't want to spend twenty dollars for the fan at wall mart make some garage sells. Have a good day.

Big John
Rio Hondo, Texas
Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting

I use Tom's set up also. One thing that may help wiyh the dust (besides a mask) is a simple box fan (turned backwards) with a VERY GOOD furnace filter taped to it pressed right up behind the lathe. Doesn't do a lot for shavings, but you'd be amazed at the job it does on dust.
[www.rodbuilding.org]

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

A good collector will take care of large chips/debris, etc. But may be too much for use in a home spare bedroom. A shop vac can substitute, but you'll need to clean the filter after every grip made. The box fan with filter does a great job on airborne duct and the filter can be easily cleaned by reversing the filter and fan direction (do this outside).

There may be some photos in the gallery of my original shop bench. It had a series of holes drilled along the top that allowed a fixture holding a shop vac nozzle to be securely positioned anywhere along the length of a rod. I used it for many years and it served me very well.

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