Outboard Turning?? Stand? Safety?

[Chris Yarish]

At my local supply house, one of the "master turners" has warned against doing any outboard turning--as a matter purely of safety. I have a General 160 and have the capability to do outboard turning, but I do not have a stand. I would like to do some larger diameter projects so the outboard turning is very appealing.

A few questions...as long as I reverse the direction of the spin (to prevent faceplate from backing off), can outboard turning be done safely?
What is a good outboard stand/tool rest to purchase?

Thanks.

[Allen Neighbors]

Chris, I turn outboard on my lathe all the time, and that's on the opposite side of the headstock from the tailstock. I have a toolrest that mounts on a bed extension.
However, the "master turner" may be referring to turning outboard on a lathe with a swiveling headstock... where you're turning on the front, outside of the bed. Or on a Lathe that cannot have a bed extension mounted on the "left" of the headstock. On either of those lathes, you need an outboard toolrest... one that attaches to the lathe to be truly safe.

[Chris Yarish]

Gotcha.
The ones he was likely referring to was a toolrest stand being unsafe.....I had an old one that is like a heavy duty tripod (weighs 100+ lbs)

I will look into something that mounts to my lathe.
Any ideas where a guy could find one for a General 160 circa 1993?

[Allen Neighbors]

I have no idea, Chris. But, I think Steve Antonucci built one using a pipe nipple of the appropriate size to fit in the toolrest base, elbowed it off and had a long piece of pipe stuck through a hole in a two by four that rested on the floor. I'm not sure if he had the 2x mounted on a base of some kind or not. Maybe this will give you an idea of making one that will attach to your lathe someway.
Another idea: A large plow disc for the base. Come up from it with a Pipe floor flange, an appropriate length of pipe, a Tee located about a foot off the floor, another piece of pipe rising from that tee to the right height for your toolrest, drilled and tapped for a set/screw/knob.
From the tee that's down near the floor, put a piece of pipe that mounts onto another floor flange attached to your lathe.
Confused? Draw it out as explained.
HTH!. :)

[Mike Golka]

Mine looks like this.

Mike

[Nathan Hawkes]

can't see the pic/file. Windows isn't recognizing an .skp file extension.


Edit: got it; google sketch up file. I'm downloading the viewer as I write.