Long tool rest: curved?

[Roger Feeley]

I read an article in FWW where a guy used homemade long tool rests. He got sick of moving his tool rest 12” at a time across long spindles.

It occurs to me that if I wanted to make a lot of simple spindles, I could make a tool rest curved to match the desired profile. I want to make a bunch of sort of barrel shaped spindles. Some are 16” and some 30”. I could easily make a matching tool rest for each.

[Tom Wilson66]

On a tool rest that long it would be a good idea to use two banjos. That length will give a lot of leverage to break the weld or bend the rest if you have a catch.
Tom

[Roger Feeley]

On a tool rest that long it would be a good idea to use two banjos. That length will give a lot of leverage to break the weld or bend the rest if you have a catch.
Tom

the article used no banjo. The rest was just a 2x6 bolted directly to the ways with a vertical piece of hard maple. My idea would be to use a curved vertical piece.

[Reed Gray]

I have heard of a couple of turners who made clamp on type tool rests for long spindles. Making one with the 'proper' curve would most likely involve a bandsaw to cut the curve. I would prefer a very hard wood, though plywood would work if you epoxied a piece of the A 3 (seems like there was a 3 on there, but can't remember) drill rod to the top for smoother gliding of your tools. The A drill rod is considerably harder than the W or O types. You might be able to bend metal close to the desired shape. Screw it down to some plywood, clamp onto your bed.

robo hippy

[Roger Feeley]

I have heard of a couple of turners who made clamp on type tool rests for long spindles. Making one with the 'proper' curve would most likely involve a bandsaw to cut the curve. I would prefer a very hard wood, though plywood would work if you epoxied a piece of the A 3 (seems like there was a 3 on there, but can't remember) drill rod to the top for smoother gliding of your tools. The A drill rod is considerably harder than the W or O types. You might be able to bend metal close to the desired shape. Screw it down to some plywood, clamp onto your bed.

robo hippy

Making the curved wood piece is no problem for me. I was thinking of steam bending a piece of maple with a cove for a piece of drill rod that I would carefully bend to the curve and then epoxy.

Oddly, the author of the article didn't worry too much about the edge of his tool rest. He just made a long piece of maple and beveled it. He said that if he had a catch and dented the thing, he would just plane it down. I guess he doesn't have many catches? I would need the drill rod.