Homemade Outboard Toolrest - Vicmarc style

[Dave Schell]

Well, it's been a couple of weeks in the making, but I've finally finished my homemade outboard toolrest for my Vicmarc. I picked up the steel from a scrap yard, including some 3"x3" steel tubing for the articulating arms, some 2"x2" tubing for the sleeve that grips the upright arm, a 1/2" thick by 5" right angle stainless steal piece for the support bracket, and a 1.5" by 1.5" stainless steel piece about 4 feet long for the upright post.

I had a machine shop drill a 1" hole down through the top of the upright arm about 6" deep to accept the toolrest. I cut a square notch in end of one of the articulating arms to accept the outright sleeve and then I welded end pieces to the ends of the articulating arms to improve the appearance of the tubes and suppport the upright sleeve, I then drilled 3/4" holes through the arms for the pivoting bolts. I also welded 3/4" nuts to the mounting bracket and one of the arms so I could tighten the pivoting bolts with only one wrench. Then I welded 1/2" nuts to the upright post and the upright sleeve so I could tighten the sleeve to the post and the post to the toolrest. The "handles" for these are just 1/2" by 8" bolts that I cut off the hex head and then bent to a usable angle. It all mounts to the lathe cabinet with the 5" right angle piece and four 1/2" bolts. When it's all tightened down, it is very stiff and very stable. I'm pleased with the way it turned out.

PS - the gauge and brass fittings on the end of the cabinet you see are my vacuum pump set up - the pump itself is located inside the cabinet so it is very quiet and the switch for it is on the front of the lathe right below the outlet. It's all very convenient. Thanks for looking.

[Jim Kountz]

Looks like a great setup. Ive been thinking about doing one of these for my Jet 1642. A little bit of help from an A-dapter kit and it should work fine!!
Nice job!!

[Mark Norman]

Very well done Dave, Looks professional too!

Thats exacly what I had in mind for mine. Let me know how it works for ya. Have ya thought about welding T handles to the bolts at the joints so ya dont need a wrench at all?

[alex carey]

What is the range of motion on that, for instance if you have a really big piece are you able to get to the back side of it?

[Phillip Bogle]

Did you buy plans? Draw it yourself? It would be interesting to see what you did and perhaps do the same or alter a bit.

[Fred Morton]

Hi Dave, very well done on the outboard toolrest. I think they're around $400-450 here downunder, so that's a good cost saving.

Seeing as you're into fabrication here is a mod that you might be interested in. I made and fitted a dust collector mounted on an articulated arm to my VL300 (see pics). It makes dust collecting quick and easy anywhere along the bed. If you have a few spare hours it might be worth some thought. Take care.


Fredo :D

[Bill Bolen]

That is quite an impressive set up. Looks like it will work quite well for you. Very professional and obvious a lot of care was taken...Bill...

[Dave Schell]

Thanks for the kind reviews. Here are some responses to the questions:

Mark - I hadn't thought of welding a t handle to the big bolts - I did consider buying longer bolts and bending them into handles like I did for the upright arm but thought it would be a pain to bend 3/4" bolts so just settled for a simple bolt and wrench. I'll consider the welding solution though the one close to the lathe may actually be too close to get a good sized handle on there. I use a pretty big wrench to torque to bolts up good and tight.

Alex - the range of motion is 100% with the articulating arms. There is no area that it not accessible. It just depends on which direction you pivot each arm. The total reach of the arm is 23" from the spindle so I can turn up to about 46" total (although I doubt I ever will).

I was also thinking that with the arm outstretched and bolted down tight it adds a lot of stability to the lathe for even inboard turning - kind of like outrigger support to the main cabinet.

Phillip, I had no plans or drawings for this. I just kind of winged it based on the photo of the outboard toolrest that Vicmarc sells. It is the same principle as theirs but my arms are 3x3 tubing instead of cast iron. Some of my web researched showed that an attached outboard rest is better than a free-standing one because the attached one "moves" with the lathe. I don't have enough experience with both styles to know if that is true or not.

Fred - I like the idea of using the articulating arms for a dust collector but I currently turn in half of a big hay barn so I don't so much collect the dust as remove it - by way of a 4 foot industrial fan blowing by my workspace. The next articulating arm project I attempt though will likely be some sort of hollowing system a la the "Monster."