| Project by Bob A in NJ | posted 28 days ago | 805 views | 4 times favorited | 9 comments |  |
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With the new lathe comes the need for a new tool rest. The Nova has a heavy duty angled tool rest vs the Jet mini lathe round tool bar. The upside down angle iron did sit flat on the Nova tool rest and it was shaking a lot. Simple solution, I attached a hose clamp to the angle iron and tool rest and it worked great. The other improvement was to fit the wood banjo directly to the ways. The set up takes 2-3 miuntes to attach but makes the 40 minutes of turning very easy from there.
The next problem was moving the lathe tools across the tool rest. The action was not smooth. Another quick fix was needed. Took a mill file, filed the top of the angle iron smooth for a minute, waxed it with Johnsons paste wax and BAM, now the tools slide across the rest like butter.
I’m starting to get the hang of the bats now. With a full size Louisville Slugger to use as a template, the bats are looking better each time.
By the way, these blanks are from www.gonebattybats.net. Nice Ash billets for very reasonable prices.
Now that the World Series is on and my nephews I’m building these for are either in New York or Philadelphia, it shouild be easy to get some decals to decorate them. The Yankee nephews with get ALCS decals and the Phillies nephews will get the World Series Championship decals. Can you guess who I want to win the series?
Any other predictions?
Bob A Oct 26th 2009
-- Bob A in NJ
9 comments so far
gagewestern
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138 posts in 244 days
posted 28 days ago
nice if the tool isn’t what you need change it to fit.
-- gagewestern
a1Jim
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16696 posts in 470 days
posted 28 days ago
Good Idea Bob
-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon
loupitou06
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69 posts in 220 days
posted 28 days ago
May I ask you one question : do you clamp/bolt the wooden “banjo” on the right to your lather bed. I would think that without clamping, the tool rest (i.e the angle iron in this case) will move when you start to cut close to the wooden banjo side.
Thanks for sharing
-- 100 fois sur le metier remettez votre ouvrage
Bob A in NJ
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522 posts in 892 days
posted 28 days ago
Lou
Yes, I was able to obtain the metal bracket for the ways, so I’m able to move the banjo closer when I need to.
-- Bob A in NJ
tamboti
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37 posts in 35 days
posted 28 days ago
Hi Bob nice solution to a problem. to improve the tool rest try or have a friend weld a shock absorber shaft on to the angle ironin your case probably 2 or3 these shafts are case hardened and you reduce the amont of ding a tool rest gets and it is easier on your hand and finger i think you know mean. Kind Regards Roger SA
PS In South Africa it is par for the course for us to always look for a home made solution as the Rand is pretty poor to the Dollar, Pound and Euro.
-- Always give it your best shot
matt garcia
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716 posts in 565 days
posted 27 days ago
Now that is ingenuity!!!
-- Matt, Houston Texas
Sef
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97 posts in 544 days
posted 27 days ago
From the title, I was worried you would getting flamed for a poor World Series prediction. Luckily you made the right choice. Who could argue with a Phillies’ repeat
?! :-)
-- I may not know a lot, but at least I know that I don't know.?.?. I think. http://chathampenworks.com/
stefang
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1646 posts in 228 days
posted 27 days ago
Good stuff, great bat.
-- Mike, American in Norway
BTKS
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480 posts in 358 days
posted 25 days ago
This idea is officially stolen. Thanks for the post, that’s going to look real good on my lathe, someday. BTKS