Lathe drip tray slope angle?

My first post to the group.

I'm about to install my first lathe at home (not counting the little Unimat). It's a pre-1950 Myford ML7 3 1/2" x 19" with cabinet stand and drip tray. It doesn't have a coolant pump and probably never will. Even so I think there should be a slope towards the corner of the tray where the drain hole is, just in case. What should the slope angle be? It's going in a cellar with a concrete floor (unknown thickness, I'm going to drill it to find out) but I intend to make a concrete plinth for it of about 3" thick with sloping sides. Any advice gratefully received.

Incidentally, the drain hole could be in the front left corner (where it is now) or the back right corner. (Someone fastened a mains socket to the back corner of the cabinet stand where it would foul the drain hose if it were on that corner.) I had a Myford 254 Plus longbed lathe at a previous place of work and its drain hole was at the back right. Its drip tray wasn't reversible so I suppose that's the normal position. That lathe was on a horizontal bench, though. On my lathe, with a slope to the rear, rolly things in the tray will roll to the back...

Reply to
John Fletcher
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My personal standard is one inch in ten feet. You could get away with a lot less slope but this is easy to calculate and pretty much guarantees rapid draining. If (for this slope) your tray is two feet wide the slope (back to front) would be 2 tenths of an inch. A six foot length gives 6 tenths. Regards. Ken.

Reply to
Ken Davey

Thanks, Beecrofter. Quite a shallow slope. Looking forward to getting it all back together. The small bits are here at home, getting cleaned when I have spare minutes, the big bits still at the factory. The factory that made it over fifty years ago is only a few miles away and they keep spares on the shelf! I'm getting a backgear cluster from them tomorrow because mine is missing teeth. Yes, they even open Saturdays.

All the best,

John

In article , Beecrofter writes

Reply to
John Fletcher

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