# Tool Rest for wood lathe



## mrbreezeet1 (Mar 31, 2013)

I saw this for sale on line, and made my own version. 
It is for cleaning up the bottom of box's, so the tool don't have to hang over the tool rest too far. 
I need to get a small mill, the counter bore is sort of a hack job. but it should do. 
I cut the 1/2 stock out on my 14" delta wood metal band saw, only had to file it a small bit. 
Faced off the 1" stock on the Logan metal lathe, and drilled and taped on the lathe. 
Did the counter bore in the drill press, only had a 3/8" end mill, 1/2"  would have been better, could have drill/milled it in one shot.


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## JohnAspinall (Apr 11, 2013)

Nice idea!  I've always wanted to make several custom-shaped wood-lathe tool rests myself (like a curved one for the inside of bowls).

Here's a question: I've seen some really nice tool rests with a piece of hardened tool steel as the contact surface.  How would you fasten hardened tool steel to a mild steel post and support?
Could you braze the tool steel without it losing its hardness?


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## David Kirtley (Apr 11, 2013)

You could drill it for a bolt, braze it, or weld it .  Once everything is ready, harden the tool rest as the last operation.


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## JohnAspinall (Apr 12, 2013)

David Kirtley said:


> You could drill it for a bolt, braze it, or weld it .  Once everything is ready, harden the tool rest as the last operation.



Please forgive me, I don't quite follow.  The hardening operation is likely to take the tool steel above the melting point of the braze, isn't it?  Hmm, I see a reference to silver soldering O-1 tool steel here  http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/threads/47060-Welding-O-1-tool-steel-question  which seems to suggest the silver solder melting point is about the same as the heat treat temperature, and they seem to suggest that you could get away with it.  Sounds possible, but not easy.  Am I missing something?


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## November X-ray (Apr 12, 2013)

Is it really essential that the tool rest be hardened? I know little of wood lathes although I do have one I dabble at metal spinning with.


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## woodtickgreg (Apr 12, 2013)

The only reason a few manufacturers are making rest with a hardened round bar on top is so the tool slides easily along it. I have been gathering materials to make some custom rest for myself and to sell to some of my comrads. I will not mess around with a hardened rod due to the fact that I just sand the rest down with 600 grit occasionally and she's good to go. Most of the rest that come with a lathe are just cast iron. I will be making straight rest of different sizes and curved rest to, both with round bar and flat. I already make my own tools and tool handles, why not the rest too?


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## David Kirtley (Apr 12, 2013)

Just like overheating when sharpening a chisel, getting the edge hot doesn't take the temper out of the whole blade. You can get the post hot on a tool rest and not have to heat the entire piece. You could also heat the edge of the rest without getting the remainder of the tool rest that hot.

Unless you have a forge, you are not going to easily get all of a big tool rest up to temperature to heat treat the entire piece.  This is not something you are going to do with a propane plumbers torch. It takes a lot of heat to get a piece of steel as big as a tool rest up to temperature for heat treating. 

You would have to do a tremendous amount of turning to begin to wear off an unhardened steel tool rest. If you did happen to wear one down, a few minutes with an arc welder would lay a couple of beads of steel back in place. A bit of grinding and you would be back in business good as new. You can even braze on replacement metal.

There is a range of temperatures for silver solder and brazing rods. Some you would nearly have get up to welding temperature of the steel to get them to melt. Hard solder comes in different melting temperatures so you can solder things up in stages.  Each stage uses a lower melting point solder that won't melt the previous soldering. I have seen soldering in as many as 4 or 5 stages. I have only had to do 3 at my most complex solder job when I was taking a jewelry making class. 2 was a lot more common.

If I really wanted a hardened steel edge on a tool rest, I would have the tool rest edge as piece of drill rod with threaded studs that you could take off and deal with separately from the rest of the tool rest.

Sometimes you just have to consider some parts as consumables. Just go with it and replace or refurbish when they get worn.



JohnAspinall said:


> Please forgive me, I don't quite follow.  The hardening operation is likely to take the tool steel above the melting point of the braze, isn't it?  Hmm, I see a reference to silver soldering O-1 tool steel here  http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/threads/47060-Welding-O-1-tool-steel-question  which seems to suggest the silver solder melting point is about the same as the heat treat temperature, and they seem to suggest that you could get away with it.  Sounds possible, but not easy.  Am I missing something?


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## JohnAspinall (Apr 12, 2013)

Thanks, I think I've got it now.



David Kirtley said:


> If I really wanted a hardened steel edge on a tool rest, I would have the tool rest edge as piece of drill rod with threaded studs that you could take off and deal with separately from the rest of the tool rest.



It's always been a nice-to-have, not a must-have, but the threaded stud idea sounds like the way to go.


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## David Kirtley (Apr 13, 2013)

A shortcut would be a linear bearing rail.  There are some premade with holes tapped in them on 4-6 inch increments. McMaster carries them but the smallest they have is 1/2 in.  http://www.mcmaster.com/#linear-shafts/=mapxlx



JohnAspinall said:


> Thanks, I think I've got it now.
> 
> 
> 
> It's always been a nice-to-have, not a must-have, but the threaded stud idea sounds like the way to go.


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