Would anyone recommend not doing the following??
I’ve got a lathe with the supplied tool rest, but it is not long enough for a particular bowl that I’d like to turn. I’ve seen the fancy tool rests that you can buy in plenty of magazines and on the net, but I don’t have $50 to spend. What I’d like to do is make one out of 1″ metal pipe, the kind you buy at a typical home improvement store for water supply to your house. I’m not talking about the copper pipe, I realize that’s probably to maliable for this use.
Anybody have any thoughts on this?? Will this toolrest end up broken and embedded in my leg??
Thanks,
Adam
Replies
Adam,
When I first got my lathe..I wasn't paying attention..and the 12" rest was knocked into a piece of spinning square stock.....it broke very easily....the tool rest was cast iron. So the first question is what is your current tool rest made of? If it's steel then drilling holes and attaching a piece of steel pipe(or black Iron) might work fine..
Adam... I'm not sure of what you want to do. Are you planning on making a longer tool rest to go into the existing tool support or are you planning on making a tall tool rest that sits on the floor and is adjusted (moved) to suit your needs? I've made longer and shorter tool rests to fit my latle. I use 1 inch solid steel rod for the piece that fits into the tool support and for the tool rest. A friendly welder joins the pieces for me. 1 inch water pipe is too large in diameter and gives too much space / unsupported tool for my likings. A piece of 1 inch x 1 inch angle iron also works quite well with the 90 degree 'edge' facing almost streight up.
SawdustSteve
Sorry for being a bit unclear! I was planning to use 1" water pipe to fit into the tool rest support and connecting another 1" water pipe at a 90 degree angle using an elbow joint. Now that you've mentioned it though, a better idea might be to use a piece of 1" water pipe to fit into the tool rest and run a long, large, bolt down through a piece of angle iron and through the hollow water pipe and tighten it down with the angle iron at a 90 degree angle to the water pipe. This would allow me to get the new tool rest into my bowl and close to the inside wall.
Any thoughts on this, any concerns, any better ideas?
Thanks,Adam
Adam, I built my own lathe and all tool rests. Built them several different ways. First was all wood , rest was 1" thick, 1 1/2" wide, various lengths. Beveled from 1/4" wide at top to zero. Worked fine except when using skew, need less body and smoother rest than wood gives you. Tried 1x1 steel angle, better than wood. Finally took a 5/16" cold rolled steel rod and installed in wood body. Used 3/8' cove bit in router to plow the groove , then epoxied rod to it. Made several lengths, this works perfect for me. I rub it down with candle wax every so often.The best rod would be oil or water hardened steel, I just used ordinary cold rolled steel because I had it laying around.
mike
Adam -
I've built several tool rests for my lathe but not out of iron pipe. Galvanized pipe is far too rough and welding galvanized is not safe - it gives off poisonous fumes and you need lots of ventilation. Black iron pipe is too soft and will get lots of knicks in it over time from the edges of scrapers and such. You can, of course, file and sand it smooth but in my view it's more maintenance than I care to deal with.
Iron pipe is sized by the inside diameter. My lathe banjo (the thing the tool rest goes in) takes a 1" diameter bar. I don't know of any standard pipe available that is 1" outside diameter. I built my rests from 1" diameter stainless steel bar stock. The post piece was ground and coped to the cross bar. I welded them together with a too small wire feed welder (MIG setup with stainless wire and stainless gas) and managed to get a moderately sound weld that's held up in use. Welding stainless is not that hard but with the thicknesses we're dealing with, it takes quite a bit of "heat" to get decent penetration. Any more tool rests I build from this stuff I'll get some stainless rod for my 220V stick welder and go from there.
Obviously from the above you'll get the hint that welding eqipment and some degree of experience welding is a benifit in making such things. I'd suggest going somewhere that sells steel bar stock and picking up a length of bar stock that fits your banjo. Mild steel bar will, like ordinary pipe, be subject to the knicks and abrasions but it's easy to file and sand it smooth occasionally. If you're handy with welding, you cold get a smaller diameter piece of stainless rod to weld onto the top of the mild steel which would provide a harder wearing surface.
Also consider welding some heavy flat bar stock onto a round bar and making curved rests to reach into the bowls. I have that on my list of projects 'just as soon as I'm able'.
From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
Dennis
Adam Pipe is not a good choice to use for this application, you want some thing solid. what I have done for several tool rest is use 1" solid for the shaft and 1/4 to 3/8 bar stock by 1" by what ever with you need. Grind or cut on one side of the top of the shaft 1" down so the thickness of the bar stock will set on that ledge and weld it to the 1" rod. You can grind or cut depending on what you have in the line of tools, the flat stock on the bottom side to taper down out to the edges.
Did I make any sense?
kk
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