Point taken, magnets rock! I presume the horse skull is attached with no less. I hate it when I misplace mine!
I was looking at the lathe and realized it's kind of messed up cuz if I wrap it in a shower curtain, there'll be a gap because the legs flair out/in at the foot. Plus, brilliantly I made it a pretty tight fit.
Still, this idea is the best so far.
I feel like I've missed an opportunity to reference Dexter here. But I don't need to beat a dead horse.
Thanks y'all
I think you can do it. Pick up a couple of those packs of rectangle magnets from Home Depot or such. They are usually around four bucks for a pack of two, and I figure you could use six. I like these, for the curtain bit, because they are pretty strong, and quite cheap. You can also get disc magnets, and a pack of six for like six bucks. But, they are a lot weaker strength.
If you wrap a cheap shower curtain around the legs from one side, across the front at the upper level where you have solid metal from the bed running all the way across, and around to the back of the other leg. You would use one magnet at the back of each leg to hold the curtain on with tension there. Then use the other four, to hold the curtain to the front metal of the bed. Since its a seamless wraparound, it should do a pretty good job of keeping the dust out from underneath the lathe.
The only bit I haven't figured out, is the shavings and dust that fall through the gap between the ways. I was thinking you could wrap a strip of another shower curtain from the front of the bed, underneath it, to the back of the bed. A few more magnets on the back would hold it up, and it would catch shavings falling through the ways. But...I don't know if its entirely practical. Would fill up and need to be cleaned out fairly often. Might be a pain in the butt. Perhaps if you could get some pieces of wood at the ends of the ways, angled down and awaqy, so that any chips and shavings fell to the outside of the legs? Seems like it gets complicated there. If you are willing to vacuum up the shavings that get caught if you wrap a strip of curtain under the bed, then that should help keep the vast majority of shavings from falling underneath.
If you wanted easier access to your cabinet. You could slice the curtain up such that you have two pieces to wrap around each leg, up to the edge of the cabinet, with clearance so you can open the drawers. Then take the final length of curtain, and drape it down the front of the lathe, with magnets holding it to the bed as previously described. The nature of the overlaps would still keep the shavings out from under the lathe for the most part. When you needed access to the cabinet, just lift that front curtain and access what you need, then let it back down again. Maybe a couple of clips to hold the bottom corners of that front piece, to the corners of the pieces wrapping around the legs for maximum shaving blocking effect.
. I do find I lean on it a bit, maybe not the best. 
