Way cover material

[Loose nut]

I'm not sure if this is the right area to post this but here it is. Does anyone have any idea of what type of material the accordion type way covers, that you see on some mills and grinders, are made of (looks like plastic) and were can it be sourced from. I want to put a tool post grinder on my old 9 by 20 lathe and I need something that will cover the ways and fold up as the saddle moves along. I have tried aluminum foil and a couple of other types of materials, but the results are less than useful. Thanks.

 

[lugnut]

Here is a link to The little machine shops page where they sell a cover like your looking for.
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1431&category=6
Another source might be from a old accordion style window blind.
Mel

 

[old-biker-uk]

Cheap & cheerful.

Once the leather soaks up a mixture of lub. & cutting oil it folds up nicely !.
Mark

 

[Loose nut]

Lugnut that's exactly what I was looking for, and I have to put in an order for some other stuff anyway, I don't think that an old blind would stand up very well to grinding but might be ok on a lathe for cutting. I was actually thinking of using a narrow roller retracting blind that would role up as the saddle moved towards the headstock but this covering is better.
Thanks

 

[Swede]

MSC sells some very high quality (and unfortunately expensive) bellows material. It is made for machine tools, and the protection of ways and recirculating bearings, that sort of thing. I used some on my CNC mill:

I wrote a page about it here: http://www.5bears.com/cnc36.htm

It comes in a large variety of sizes and shapes, and can be cut easily. It is simple to secure with aluminum sheet brackets, cut and formed for your lathe. It's good stuff! Good luck with your project.

 

[BobWarfield]

Oddly, someone else asked me this very question via email tonight. Here was my answer:

There are a couple of possibilities. First, you can make them fairly easily:

http://www.ixen-cnc.com/

Second, there are various sources, often expensive, but sometimes not. I'll leave out the "pro" sources because they are expensive. There has been an eBay seller offering a belos for some time. Search this item#:

300207179527

Lastly on the cheap front, try Littlemachineshop.com and search for "bellows".

 

[flint]

I am wondering if anyone knows about the milling head that goes with the C4 lathe to make a M4 machine. If I have it right it is an X1, but this seems a bit small/underpowered for the C4.
Where this is coming from is a need to decide about getting the milling head for the C4 (with the advantages of automatically having power feed and the relatively low cost---also it might be easier to convinve SWMBO that this is all one machine ) versus a stand alone model with more milling capacity.

Any thoughts appreciated.