[SRT Mike]

I just got a new mill - it does not have a chip conveyor but I want to add one. It should be easy - the machine has two "spouts" that drain coolant + chips out the back of the machine and it drops 4-5 inches into the catch tray and under the tray is the coolant tank. I want to just have a moving conveyor that goes underneath the two spouts, up an incline, and dumps into a 55gal drum. I poke a hole in the bottom of the drum and have a return pipe that drains coolant from the chips back into the tank.

The problem is I am machining a lot of acrylic and makign TONS of chips, and it clogs up the screens in the chip tray within minutes, so I can't run the machine overnight - which I'd like to do.

I can fabricate up a frame and get the rollers and motor and switches and gears from McMaster - but who makes the actual belt material? I envision a perforated rubber type belt, 12" wide, that I can buy on a roll. It needs to have fine enough perforations to keep the chips in but let the coolant through. Rather than re-invent the wheel, where can I buy something like that on a roll?

Thanks!
Mike

[Aksess]

Where are you located? I am in Tennessee and have a lot of old belting material at work. Or you can check with your farmers co-op or any feed or fertalizer plant.

[SRT Mike]

Where are you located? I am in Tennessee and have a lot of old belting material at work. Or you can check with your farmers co-op or any feed or fertalizer plant.

I'm in Boston - thanks for the offer though. I dunno if we have a farmers co-op but I'll check. I noticed McMaster has rubber belting thats perforated so maybe that would work... maybe I'll get a small piece and give it a shot.

[cadfish]

I would check here
http://www.mcmaster.com/

[Geof]

I just got a new mill - it does not have a chip conveyor but I want to add one....
The problem is I am machining a lot of acrylic and makign TONS of chips, and it clogs up the screens in the chip tray within minutes,

I had seen this thread earlier but it was just now that it has come to the front again that I thought about a suggestion. Have you considered making a screw conveyor? The reason I ask this is because as you point out acrylic makes great volumes of lightweight chips that are real PITA. They may not carry out nicely with a belt conveyor but even if they do they still take up a lot of volume. With a screw conveyor you might be able to devise something that would compress the chips and eject less volume. Also if you are running coolant it would wring the coolant out back into the machine.

And if you are not running coolant I suggest you have plenty of fire extinguishers around. Finely divided acrylic burns very efficiently.

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

SRTMike 55 gal. drum w/vacuum cleaner mounted on the lid. Works fine on VTL turning 4-7 ft.dia. nylon gear blanks. Feed thru plastic tubing from cutting area to drum.