DIY toolpost / rest.

[chaoticbob]

I work mainly in metal, but I'm dipping my toes into the into the scary sea of of wood turning. I don't have a wood turning lathe so I'm seeing what I can do with an engineering lathe.

I'm waiting on delivery of Keith Rowley's lathework book before buying cutting tools, but in the meantime I want to make a toolpost and rest to suit my lathe.

I don't know how much adjustment above and below centre height I need to allow for. In the metal turning world tools are (mostly) set on centre, but for wood turning it seems different and more complicated!

Can anyone advise? It's a 6" centre height machine, so capable of swinging 12", but I don't see myself making anything more than 6" diameter.
Rob.

 

[KingAether]

You wont need to allow for any higher than the center point but allow for lower as you will want your tools on angles and not 90 to the workpiece at all times; not sure by how much but the lathes ive used can drop down at least 25% under center. I'd recommend looking into an oland tool, easily made from hss bits and some pipe and will save a good bit of money over buying tools right away

 

[Paul Hannaby]

For most tools, you would only need to drop the rest slightly below centre so if it will go 1" below centre, that would do. The only tool that would need to go more than that below centre is a ring tool and not a lot of people use those (however, I do!).
I disagree with KingAether - if you use a skew chisel, there are times when you should set the rest considerably above centre so assuming you want to work on up to 6" spindles, allow for up to 2" above centre for the rest and that will cover most eventualities.

 

[J-G]

You'll no doubt have a metal-working chuck and will almost certainly be told that it is totally unsuitable for wood-work. DON'T BELIEVE IT.

I use a Myford Super 7 for all my turning - I treat timber as just a 'different' material - though I only use hardwoods - the reason I'm posting at all is to point out that a 3 jaw self-centering metal-working chuck CAN be used for wood but there are some caveats.

If you have a set of 'S

oft' jaws it is very worthwhile to drill & tap them so that they can be used as 'Carriers' for wooden blocks which can be machined to suit whatever job you have.

This is a set of jaws made from Beech. There is a slot in the bottom to locate each Beech Block on the soft jaw. These are to hold larger components but there is no reason that the blocks can't be nearer the centre - you would just have to trim them at 60° so that they could close up smaller.

I do on occasion use a 'normal' tool-rest and 'normal' wood-turning gouges/skews/scrapers but find that I can mostly do what I need using metal-working tools in the standard tool-post.

Just some 'food-for-thought'.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

You will also use the rest above centre with a scraper, especially a big heavy one.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

Woodturning can be done on a metal turning lathe but I think you'll find the cross slide gets in the way a great deal if using woodturning tools?

Michelle Holzapfel - Wikipedia

Craft in America » Michelle Holzapfel

Above are links to a very creative lady I've known about for many years; Michelle uses a metal turning lathe and became an expert at manipulating the compound slide with tooling at center height.

It depends on what you want to turn and how involved you want to become; egg cups are basic but here's something you might not know about;

Home



I've been wood/metal turning for a lifetime and it must be 30 years ago my lovely wife treated me to five new volumes of Holtzapffel books one shown below; I was absolutely fascinated by the work and techniques shown. The five books cost £105 at the time and are still like new; I'll never part with them.

Whenever I see lathes mentioned it grabs my interest because I must be addicted to lathes and there's no known cure; at one time I used to own five lathes but now only own three. I was taught on big industrial lathes in 1963 and always try to encourage anyone to buy a lathe.

Sorry to wander off topic chaoticbob; I think once you have a go at woodturning you too will enjoy turning all kinds of things. I used to own a very large Dominion woodturning lathe and this was fitted with a compound slide but I like to use a proper woodturning lathe for woodturning finding it much easier to manipulate the tools freely. Good luck with your endeavours.

It's minus 4C this morning so my workshop is out of bounds again hence I can spend time at the keyboard.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

14c colder than here. 98% humidity, so you're probably a bit drier.

 

[MusicMan]

Note that you can download the Holzapffel books online for free. Great reading!

 

[chaoticbob]

Thanks for replies and sorry for not getting back earlier. The Rowley book arrived yesterday and I have been reading it avidly, as well as doing other research.

J-G - I have indeed been told that that metal working lathes are unsuitable for wood working, and I didn't believe it. I once told a friend that I'd bought a lathe and she said " what's that, oh, it's one of those spinny-round things". Obviously it gets more complicated, but that's the nub of it.

Colin - no need to apologise for wandering off topic. It's good to hear about your experiences.

I've had a look at the Holtzapffel books - fascinating stuff, thanks!

After reading Rowley I'm worried about my toolpost design. He advises a sort of contoured rest which allows the tool to get closer to the work than a simple round bar, which is what I'd been planning. But looking at the Axminster site they say that a 19mm round bar is an ideal toolrest. So still confused.

Rob

 

[minilathe22]

For simple shapes a straight round bar will be fine, curved tool rests are handy for deeper bowls or more unusual shapes. I would start with a few straight ones and once your knowledge improves consider looking for some curved ones.

 

[scooby]

After reading Rowley I'm worried about my toolpost design. He advises a sort of contoured rest which allows the tool to get closer to the work than a simple round bar, which is what I'd been planning. But looking at the Axminster site they say that a 19mm round bar is an ideal toolrest. So still confused.

Rob

I asked the same question when I first started. Round tool rests are fine but you'll always have that bigger gap than using a 'normal' rest. I wouldn't let it worry you, plenty of people use round bar rests.

 

[Orraloon]

My lathe also has round bar rests and I can get up close enough to the work.
Regards
John

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I asked the same question when I first started. Round tool rests are fine but you'll always have that bigger gap than using a 'normal' rest. I wouldn't let it worry you, plenty of people use round bar rests.

The downside of a round bar is when you are already working too far ...... farther than you would choose ......... from the workpiece for one reason or another it adds another undesirable 10mm. (In my case it's the design of the banjo that occasionally holds the toolrest away.) If you're going to get a catch with a 15mm gap you're a lot more likely to get one with a 25mm one.
I made some decent rests for my old ML8 from round bar for the posts cut at forty five degrees at the top with angle iron welded to them - I could get the top/leading edge of the angle right in to touch the workpiece. Easy and cheap.

 

[chaoticbob]

Thanks. I think I'll go for a round rest then as it's easy to make and it sounds like it should work. The first steps in learning a new thing are always difficult - so much one doesn't know, and then the anxiety about the stuff you don't know you don't know...

A new vocabulary goes along with this as well. In the world of engineering lathes the 'banjo' is the part that holds the gears on the back end of the headstock. From Phil's post I think that in wood turning the banjo must be the thing which clamps the toolpost to the lathe bed - Rowely calls that the 'saddle'. Please correct me if I'm wrong!

My plan is to make a post which replaces the topslide / toolpost on my metal lathe:

so everything including and above the graduated ring. On the basis of replies I've had I reckon it should work.


Thanks for all the input - I have a horrible, lurking, suspicion that I might get addicted and have to buy a wood turning lathe to add to the stable.

Rob.

 

[Mark Hancock]

A new vocabulary goes along with this as well. In the world of engineering lathes the 'banjo' is the part that holds the gears on the back end of the headstock. From Phil's post I think that in wood turning the banjo must be the thing which clamps the toolpost to the lathe bed - Rowely calls that the 'saddle'. Please correct me if I'm wrong!
Rob.

Banjo - the part that holds the tool rest and on the majority of lathes clamps to the lathe bed
Saddle - a part which is not on all lathes that sits on the lathe bed and under the banjo

 

[chaoticbob]

Thanks Mark - that makes sense. Peering more closely at the pics in Rowley's book it looks like the Coronet 3 (dual round bar bed) has a two-part arrangement as you describe, but I don't think he makes any distinction between the the two parts. Obviously his aim is to teach turning, not DIY lathe bodging!
Phil - I forgot to acknowledge your suggestion of welding a bit of angle iron to the post. I could do that - thanks.

Rob

 

[Mark Hancock]

Thanks Mark - that makes sense. Peering more closely at the pics in Rowley's book it looks like the Coronet 3 (dual round bar bed) has a two-part arrangement as you describe, but I don't think he makes any distinction between the the two parts. Obviously his aim is to teach turning, not DIY lathe bodging!
Phil - I forgot to acknowledge your suggestion of welding a bit of angle iron to the post. I could do that - thanks.

Rob

Yes the Coronet No 3 did have a saddle and banjo combination as did a number of other lathes of that era. It's just not that common these days. The No3 was actually my first lathe which I used professionally for 10 years so am very familiar with it.
Your reference made to Keith Rowley's book made me smile...I use it as a teaching aid during the courses I run...bear in mind Keith wrote that back in the 90's