Conover lathe, anchoring toolrest

[roger wiegand]

As I turn bigger and more out of balance things I'm having a near constant problem now with the holddown for the toolrest banjo loosening and moving. Often at very inopportune moments. It seems that the vibration causes the cam to rotate, no matter how firmly I wrench on it. Aside from the obvious "buy a bigger lathe" answer, which I can't do right now (and the other, "develop better technique" answer that I'm working hard at), I wonder if anyone else has had experience with this and has any suggestions on making that connection more secure. My impression is that it has gotten much worse over time, and now happens even while turning relatively small, in balance spindles. With a 12-14" chunk of log I'm re-tightening a couple time per minute. It's very distracting.

[david privett]

if you have enough thread use a jam nut on the screw that tightens the rest ,if not enough thread replace screw with another just a bit longer , just do not rip the threads out of the rest base.(banjo)

[Richard West]

I turn on a conover, and find clearing the chips and checking that the banjo hold down is perpendicular to the banjo in both directions does the trick. I hope this helps.