... Made a new lathe tool rest
I've been using the "standard" tool rest that came with the lathe, it's that basic piece of cast "pot metal". I actually have several sizes but they're all made of the same cheap crap.
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I've been oogling those nice ones made from round steel stock, but Boy-howdy! are they ever proud of them things!
Well, yesterday I broke one of the cheap ones I had. This one was not actually cast from one piece, but the head is held onto the stem with a set screw. Here's a few pix of the break. You can see that there was a big void (flaw) in the casting, causing one of the ears to snap off.
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I was looking for something else and ran across a nice straight piece of 5/8" steel rod, and decided to try and make myself one of the round style ones.
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I printed out a picture from the Interwebs so I could see approximately how the curves go and then drew a rough shape to use as a pattern.
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Then I used two MAPP hand-held torches to heat the rod to cherry-red and started bending. Took about 20 minutes to come up with a shape I liked.
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I know that they say you aren't supposed to weld to that cast crap, but figured I'd give it a go anyway. And "THEY" were right. After I welded it and let it cool, I gave it a rap with a hammer and sure enough, it popped right off. .
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So I cleaned up the rod on the grinder and set out on "Plan B". I thought that maybe I could weld it to the stem. I didn't take a pic but I actually used 3 big clamps to get the stem absolutely 90* to the bar.
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My welds are not the prettiest, but like I always say "It aint gotta be pretty to be functional". You can see above that it's about 10.5" straight across, and almost 12" tip-to-tip.
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Here's a comparison showing what I was using for turning the inside of the bowls. The old one is pretty "beefy" and sometimes it wouldn't even fit inside some of what I was trying to turn. This rod should be MUCH NICER to use.
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I decided not to paint the top edge. I figured the tools sliding along it will mess it up anyway, so I only painted the bottom side.
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I haven't used it yet, the paint was still wet when I took these photos, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna LIKE IT! So more than likely if I can find some 25mm round stock to cut up for the stems, I'll be making some more of these.
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Once again. thanks for looking. Comments always welcome
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