Wood lathe tool rest
Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 7:40 pm
Every now and then we get a job to recreate some porch spindles from older houses. Usually the spindles are in bad shape, rotted beyond saving or just plain missing. Up 'til now most of the one we turned were short enough that the tool rest on our wood lathe was just long enough for them, but this latest batch we're doing are over 30 inches long, so we needed a longer tool rest. Most of the commercially available one are cast with a hardened steel edge on them for the chisels to ride on, but i've never seen on that was 24 inches long. So I made my own.
The whole piece is made out of 2 x 2 angle iron, a piece of 1 inch o.d. tube and some 1/4 inch cold rolled round stock. I welded the tube on center to the back of the angle iron. It's welded along the entire tube side length to give it more stability and then I used the 1/4 inch rod to truss out the ends because the rest is so long. There can be a lot of stress placed on the tool rest when cutting, so it has to be as solid a humanly possible over the entire distance. The ends are gusseted with the rod to help stop any flex on the ends. So far the wood lathe guy says it works very well. There is also a piece of 1/4 inch rod welded to the top edge for a tool slide.
The 2 inch agle iron was actually too wide for the chisels and I didn't feel like buying a narrower piece, so I put it in the mill and cut off a half inch on one side. To get the cut side nice and even, the piece went on the surface grinder to get the cut edge perfectly flat and parallel to the opposite edge. I'm only saying this part as an excuse to show off my surface grinder, another government surplus auction find.
The whole piece is made out of 2 x 2 angle iron, a piece of 1 inch o.d. tube and some 1/4 inch cold rolled round stock. I welded the tube on center to the back of the angle iron. It's welded along the entire tube side length to give it more stability and then I used the 1/4 inch rod to truss out the ends because the rest is so long. There can be a lot of stress placed on the tool rest when cutting, so it has to be as solid a humanly possible over the entire distance. The ends are gusseted with the rod to help stop any flex on the ends. So far the wood lathe guy says it works very well. There is also a piece of 1/4 inch rod welded to the top edge for a tool slide.
The 2 inch agle iron was actually too wide for the chisels and I didn't feel like buying a narrower piece, so I put it in the mill and cut off a half inch on one side. To get the cut side nice and even, the piece went on the surface grinder to get the cut edge perfectly flat and parallel to the opposite edge. I'm only saying this part as an excuse to show off my surface grinder, another government surplus auction find.