Hi All, I just joined as I recently came into possession of a G0766, a significant jump in quality from my previous tinkertoy lathe. I am looking at tool rest options and noticed in this group that the Robust rests are commonly recommended. But I have seen no information regarding the curved bowl rests from Grizzly. Has anyone used these? What are the downside to these rests that members here do not use them?
The ones offered thru Grizzly are totally cast iron. They will ding and dent from tools. They are much less expensive than Robusts', but that's why.
I have the 0766 and the 0800....I higly recommend the Robust rests.....I have 6 of them in varying configurations. For the 0766, you need the custom rests with a total height of 8.75” from bottom of post to top rail where the gouge rests.
It is not unusual for a beginner to snap a cast iron tool rest when they get a big catch and they are close to the unsupported end of the rest. Cast iron is pretty brittle. Steel is more forgiving. I rarely use the big long cast iron rest that came with my G0766. It nicks easily. My two favorites are home made and based on the Robust Comfort rests. I think that I have an 8" and a 5". If you have access to a decent arc welder and a metal vice, curved tool rests (from steel) are a fun project and aren't too hard to make. I've made a bunch. I've rounded the bottom edges of my square lathe tools so that if I do get a catch, it is much less likely to dig into the (soft) steel tool rest. Also, the rounding makes them slide more easily. But about once every six months to a year, I'll take 2 minutes and dress the top surface with a file. Eventually, when I get a round tuit, I'm going to weld on a piece of drill rod on some of my rests.
Thanks for the insights. The description on the Grizzly site is a bit misleading. It said it was a steel radius, but they evidently were talking about the steel post not the rest. Although my 0766 was used, it hadn't seen much use so the tool rest is still in pretty good shape. my first Rest purchases will be the bowl rests.
I found that the inside bowl rest is not as useful as you would think. When your trying to make the turn from the side of the bowl to the bottom, the rest outside of the bowl gets in the way of the bowl gouge swing. The bowl rest is useful when using a scraper inside the bowl but not so useful with the bowl gouge. I wouldn't buy it again. I would spend my money on different length rests.
I came upon some hardened steel dowel pins - 1/4" diameter x 16" long, and had welder neighbor tack one to the Grizzly 14" toolrest. That was over a year ago, and have not had a single nick yet. He said it was a bear to get the dowel to stick, and it may have annealed a bit, but not enough for me to notice.
I wonder how well soft solder would work to attach the rod? It melts and flows at lower temps depending on the alloy. It wouldn't be as tough as a weld. But it might make up for that with being soldered the entire length rather than just tacked here and there. I might do an experiment to see if solder will stick to drill rod. Perhaps it won't.
Hard silver solder will work, but the temperatures might be too high, also causing annealing. This tacked about 1" long in 5 places holds really well, but he said it was difficult. Maybe TIG would be quicker and better.
