Carefully designed way wipers will help to keep abrasives out. If the saddle has them left and right, it would be a good idea to provide a way of getting oil into the area between them.

Smart and Brown model A lathes have a positive oil feed to the cross slide and the saddle from the reservoir in the apron which has a pump which works as the saddle moves. In their manual, it says never use compressed air for cleaning.

Felt wipers are used on a wide variety of lathes successfully.

If you decide to fit them and have to make your own, then chiropodists' felt ( look on the web) seems to be a good material and less likely to wear quickly than the soft felt from craft shops.

Rod

aaaagh nooooooo! Vacuum by all means but blast forces muck into small gaps.

I have a tray fixed to the front of the saddle of my myford which catches most of the swarf, and a backplate arrangement behind the milling machine vice which deflects chips away from the Y axis slide at the back

Some time ago, the late and lamented John Stevenson wrote an article in MEW on making new "rubber" wipers using a proprietary product for one one of his lathes.

From memory it entailed making a simple pair of inner and outer dies and casting the "rubber" between then until cured, ready for fitting to the lathe.

I would not use compressed air to clean a machine, because of the risk of forcing particles of swarf under a wiper.

If this happens, every movement will be lapping the very surface that the wiper is supposed to protect. As Apprentices, we were told never to use a blowgun to clean the machine, only cloths, which could be replaced.

Howard

Remember efficient way wipers will removing pretty much everything on the ways including oil, so you may need a lubrication system to apply oil through the saddles.

Is there a reason why a close fitting piece of Delrin wouldn't make a good way wiper? It wouldn't trap swarf like felt can.