How close to the wall is your lathe?

[William C Rogers]

I had my lathe against the wall for years and just recently moved it out where I can walk behind it. I definitely like this much better.

[John K Jordan]

...and often found that everything I dropped wound up over there - a real PITA.

I don't understand the difficulty others have in cleaning or picking up things dropped behind the lathe. Are these lathes on stands that limit access behind? Mine are all on legs and it is easy to retrieve things and clean behind.

I do have a shop-vac style hose connected to my cyclone DC so I can clean all around without effort.

JKJ

[Jamie Straw]

I don't understand the difficulty others have in cleaning or picking up things dropped behind the lathe. Are these lathes on stands that limit access behind? Mine are all on legs and it is easy to retrieve things and clean behind.

I do have a shop-vac style hose connected to my cyclone DC so I can clean all around without effort.

JKJ

If by being "on stands", you mean "mobile" no -- mine (the 1236) is not mobile. This despite the fact that it's on a shop-built "mobile" base, which turned out to not be very mobile at all. Although I have full use of a 2-car garage-sized space, it's filled with machines, lumber, counters and a pellet stove, so there's very little room to maneuver. The lathe has a dust collector at one end and a SCMS on a stand on the other end, so a magnet and reacher are very useful for retrieving things with little angst. (Not to mention, bending over and twisting can be a shortcut to being laid up for a day or two.)

[Jamie Straw]

[Snip]... the tablesaw is way more table than saw these days, so it gets relegated to a corner and a mobile base.

I love the way you put that, Jeffrey. My Unisaw has the 52" fence and big table to the right. If I turn around from the lathe and take 2 steps to my right, there it is (the table). I had considered cutting the fence and table back to much shorter until I realized how useful that horizontal space is for changing out chuck jaws, making drawings, piling up spindle stock, whatever!

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

My first lathe was against the wall. With it there I splattered curls and chips all over the shop. When I learned that most chips went behind me I decided to turn my new lath around so the wall is 4' behind the lathe. Now the chips hit the wall and remain in a tighter area and my table saw and other cast iron machinery don't get covered with wet curls.
faust

[john taliaferro]

Whats a table saw ? My lathe was straight to the wall and one of the first large logs came out of the tail stock and riped my 6 screws out of the faceplate , it landed between lathe and wall wedged tight . It broke the 3/8 anchor in the end and slid it out to 15 degrees to the wall . Thats when Mike showed up and ask how many screws did i have in it and recommended more . Any way the lathe still sits sideways , does cause problems sometimes turning long and stright but is easey to get back their

[William C Rogers]

I don't understand the difficulty others have in cleaning or picking up things dropped behind the lathe. Are these lathes on stands that limit access behind? Mine are all on legs and it is easy to retrieve things and clean behind.

I do have a shop-vac style hose connected to my cyclone DC so I can clean all around without effort.

JKJ

John, I have a PM 90 that is cabinet based stand, so yes (for me) the lathe mounting makes it hard to clean and get dropped things when it was against the wall.