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Tool rests

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willstewart:
I am looking for opinions on the best types - my lathe came with traditional cast, shaped rests that reach out to the piece with a shaped 'blade'.  These work fine at first but seem to be made of fairly soft metal and thus to acquire a 'ripple' on the resting surface from intermittent tool pressure, for example when rounding or turning complex shapes.  This can make it tricky to move the tool smoothly along the rest. I have ground the rest surface level again and know friends who have done the same, but this does not look like a sustainable solution.  But I also have seen and now acquired a round steel bar type tool rest that looks to be made of much harder metal and is reported not to have this problem, though it does result in the tool support point being necessarily a bit further from the piece being worked.

What is other people's experience here?

Lazurus:
I use the standard rests that came with the VB36, they are of steel and reasonably hard, when they get marked I just dress with emery cloth or a fine file - never had any isues with the standard shape.

John Plater:
I was given to understand that cast metal tool rests are softer but able to accept the shock loading when in use. A harder metal might be more brittle. I use both types of tool rest, typically the standard type on the outside of a piece and the round bar on the inside for ease of access.
ATB John

happy amateur:
Would it be possible to have a steel rod welded to the original tool rest.

Fred Taylor
Orchard-woodturners.org.uk

willstewart:
Thanks for the replies! 

This does tend to confirm the issue - yes one can re-dress the conventional tool rest, and sometime someone could produce one with a rod fixed on top, but meanwhile the rod version seems worth using for the moment.  I doubt it is very fragile (but anyone who has broken one please say!) - not only is it pretty thick & solid but also I think of the same material as the supporting post on the standard rest anyway.

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