Thanks to Matt (aka Splint Eastwood) and his metalworking I was able to make a custom tool rest for my mini lathe. The mini is small enough already, I was kinda peeved to lose so much from the diameter of the workpiece because of the tool rest base. This one is a prototype made out of mdf and it seems to be working out well.
These are the raw materials I brought with me to Matt's place. Some angle iron, a few bolts, spacers, and nuts. I already had the angle iron or I might of gotten something a tad smaller. We used a metal chopsaw to cut it to length and chop the heads of the carriage bolts.
We experimented with a few ways to get both bolts lined up for welding.
The bolts are welded to the angle iron and then Matt took a grinder and polisher to it
All primed and ready for paint
Next stage is in my garage. This is a pic of my lathe mounted to my track table system. My rest is going to ride along the xtra t-track I had left over.
A pic of the inside of the rest. The bottom is where the rest locks into the t-track. The top is where I fine tune the rest. I can raise/lower it and move it in and out.
This is a blank I got from Andy (carvedtones) The tool rest is pushed in as close as possible. I don't have any bigger blanks to test out but because the tool rest can slide out and the rest can be backed out as well I think I will be able to start off with something utlizing the maximum diameter of the lathe.
View image in gallery
These are the raw materials I brought with me to Matt's place. Some angle iron, a few bolts, spacers, and nuts. I already had the angle iron or I might of gotten something a tad smaller. We used a metal chopsaw to cut it to length and chop the heads of the carriage bolts.
We experimented with a few ways to get both bolts lined up for welding.
The bolts are welded to the angle iron and then Matt took a grinder and polisher to it
All primed and ready for paint
Next stage is in my garage. This is a pic of my lathe mounted to my track table system. My rest is going to ride along the xtra t-track I had left over.
A pic of the inside of the rest. The bottom is where the rest locks into the t-track. The top is where I fine tune the rest. I can raise/lower it and move it in and out.
This is a blank I got from Andy (carvedtones) The tool rest is pushed in as close as possible. I don't have any bigger blanks to test out but because the tool rest can slide out and the rest can be backed out as well I think I will be able to start off with something utlizing the maximum diameter of the lathe.
View image in gallery