Replies

1. 
   pauld | Apr 27, 2003 04:49am | #1

   ... and when you completed this project, were you tired or "well-rested?"

2. 
   mwestenberg | Apr 27, 2003 05:10am | #2

   Don't have a welder and how did you bend that?

3. 
   SIMON | Apr 27, 2003 03:28pm | #3

   I'm learning more and more about metalworking out of necessity, but a lot of woodworkers (myself included) don't know the first thing about welding. Is that a new pre-requisite?

   I can hide my lack of drafting skills behind CAD if I need to. It's harder to hide my lack of metalworking skills!

   And very nice tool rest!

1. 
   Woodcrazy | Apr 27, 2003 04:53pm | #4

   First of all - the toolrest has a big mistake.  the curves are going the wrong way! didn't notice it was welded upside down until it was monted on the lathe!!

   To bend it, just heated it with the oxy/acetyl torch until one side was red and then a few hammer blows on the anvil would bend it.  heat the next section and repeat until it looks right.

   then it just a matter of brazing or welding it to the post.  it was somewhat easy to hammer apart and then re-braze the right way!

1. 
   bodger | Apr 28, 2003 03:51am | #5

   You could always use it for turning the outside of the bowl.

   What kind of steel did you use?  What sort of costs are you looking at?

   Bodger

1. 
   Woodcrazy | Apr 28, 2003 10:08pm | #6

   its cold rolled bar steel from the offcuts at the local metal supermarket.  total cost was maybe $2.50 Canadian. not including brazing rod (1.5") and gasses.

1. 
   bodger | Apr 29, 2003 02:10am | #9

   I can find $5.00. I'll take one of each, the right way and the wrong way.

   Bodger

2. 
   Woodcrazy | Apr 29, 2003 03:13am | #10

   Great humour.  thanx.  come visit Toronto at the earliest possible.. We are clean. and have cheap tool rests, if we can make them right!!

2. 
   GeeSeaWhy | Apr 28, 2003 11:51pm | #7

   "You could always use it for turning the outside of the bowl"

   No, you need the same curve for both inside and outside the bowl. What you could use it for is outboard turning, which effectively reverses the direction of rotation and requires a curved rest which is a mirror image of the one used for inboard turning.

   Graeme

1. 
   bodger | Apr 29, 2003 02:08am | #8

   It might also depend on which way you have the bowl chucked up.  I think the original would have worked fine for cleaning up the (outside) bottom of a reversed chuck bowl.

   Bodger

4. 
   DennisS | Apr 29, 2003 07:38am | #11

   Hi WC -

   I've made a couple straight tool rests. My problem is, my banjo takes a 1" diameter post so I scrounged an 8' piece of 1" stainless from my machinist brother. Bending that stuff will be a definite challenge. I've welded it with my MIG welder but it's just a little Lincoln 110v wire feed and doesn't really have the amps to get decent penetration on that heavy of stock. Tried brazing but that didn't really work all that well with stainless.

   I think to bend stainless I'll need to build a form and heat more than one section at a time until the thing's pretty limp and will bend in a smooth arc, doncha think?

   Nice looking toolrest, BTW. Didn't catch the backward curve until you menitoned it, though! (grin)

   I made a center steady rest for my previous lathe but had to retrofit it to my new one since the drive center is higher than the old one. I'll take a photo and post it if you're interested.

   ...........

   Dennis in Bellevue WA

   [email protected]

1. 
   Woodcrazy | Apr 29, 2003 10:31pm | #12

   never tried to bend Stainless Steel. My welders book says SS 18-8 melts around 2580 while mild steel melts at 2725. Assuming they soften at similar temps then it should go just like regular steel - although i'm no expert at all on this.  have heard that SS needs special treatment for the stresses and such, maybe its more brittle.

   as for bending regular steel,  heat it to a red and hit it with a hammer, it was quite soft and bends easily.

1. 
   DennisS | Apr 30, 2003 10:13am | #13

   WC -

   I made a pot hook for a dutch oven for a friend a while back out of 3/8" SS bar stock. The oddest thing about it was, if you heat it too much, it gets little "boils" on the surface. The coloration of stainless is different from regular mild steel that I'm used to so it's difficult (for me) to judge temperature and maleability from color.

   The stainless I have, the 1" bar stock that I've made straight tool rests from, is harder than the gates of the hot place! That's what I like about it. It's really hard to knick it with the edges of scrapers and the like.

   Thanks for keeping this discussion alive .... building a curved tool rest is on my to-do list and talking about it helps to float it to the top! (grin)

   ...........

   Dennis in Bellevue WA

   [email protected]

1. 
   Woodcrazy | Apr 30, 2003 09:00pm | #14

   I tried the Sorby module system a while back. I got the threaded post and figured i could get a piece of bar stock and drill a hole and thread it and make a larger straight rest. i saved purchasing the bar portion.  However it was apparent that even when tightened to the max (my strength) a catch would undo the thing and it would need another burst of stamina to tighten again.   Once i got the torch kit I welded the pieces and they can't separate now.  So this last effort of the curved rest was just a piece of bar for the post. 

   Have made a scraper from a piece of A2 from the offcuts. Its 2" wide, 1/2" and about 9" long. Weighs a lot.  I cut the tang and round nose with the torch and then with a 24 grit wheel ground it down to a final profile. Had it professionally heat treated to a Rockwell hardness of 59.  Total cost 13 for the steel, 30 for heat treatment (Canadian).  Used a copper pipe piece for the ferule.  Then used my 1" scraper, to scale up the handle, ratio was 9" to 16".  Shown here is the 1" by 1/4" thick Taylor scraper and my Mother of All Scrapers (MOAS).  The MOAS does not rattle.

   regards

   
1. 
   DennisS | May 01, 2003 07:20am | #15

   That, my friend, is one helluva scraper!

   My brother gave me a half a box full of carbide cutting tips of various profiles for which I need to make holders and handles. The carbide portion is brazed to square stock (about 1/2" square). This is the format used in metal lathe tool holders, of course. I picked these up with the thought of trying out some soap stone turnings.

   ...........

   Dennis in Bellevue WA

   [email protected]

2. 
   crt2cu2 | May 01, 2003 08:21am | #16

   Woodcrazy,

   Yes, a fellow turning tool maker! Your scraper looks similar to hefty ones I've made from old files. I make turning tool handles from baseball bats bought at junk stores (turned and trued to make pretty of course). And of course ferrules from odd bits of copper, brass or whatever pipe I can find. Although, I am thinking about a different way to do ferrules. They seem to loosen over the years as the handle shrinks. I am impressed with the tool rest as well- especially since I have little (none) such metal working talent. I wonder though about using round bar stock for the horizontal arm. Doesn't that put the lever point of the turning tool a bit far away from the stock? With heavy scrapers this is not a problem, but how about skews and gouges?

   I envy your metal trades capacity. My old lathe is huge and a dream tool yet all parts are nonstandard. Therefore parts are hard to find or build and local machine shops don't seem too interested in making stuff for me. I might just hire you when I need parts...hmmm I,ve always wanted a curved rest for bowls and I could always use a few more faceplates. Do ya do those?

   sawick

3. 
   Woodcrazy | May 01, 2003 08:15pm | #17

   You are right about the lever point moving away from the stock, the bar is only 5/8" so the distance is not too large. I have made a horizontal rest with 1" bar and use it mainly for roughing out, so the tools are heavier and haven't had much of a problem.  Notice that the Sorby modular kits use round bar so they must figure it is not a major concern.

   Never even considered faceplates, if one could find a nut to fit the threads and could cut a reasonable circle then it is possible. Right now thats beyond my talents.

   I used a center punch to make 2 dimples in the ferule to help it stay and a bit of epoxy also was used to hold it on.

   regards