? If I had a toolrest made....

Re: ? If I had a toolrest made....

John Lucas

>mIKE

I just hit mine every now and then with a file. I haven't made a single mark in my Best Wood tool rest. I guess I'm not as aggressive as you. My Nova Tool rests feel like mild steel. They dent fairly easily but a few swipes with the file takes care of it.

Re: ? If I had a toolrest made....

Richard Allen

>Hi Mike

You would need to harden the tool rest to the same hardness as the gouge. I would be concerned that a hardened tool rest would be pront to snaping.

Perhaps a seperat but equal tool rest for finishing cuts would help.

Thanks

Richard

Re: ? If I had a toolrest made....

Mike Schwing from Maryland

>John, same thing here. A few swipes with 180 grit cleans it up fine, but if I go from truing up big heavy blank that bangs the rest a bit. Inevitably I proceed to shaping and then a tiny little depression or snag in the rest causes my nice flowing curve to take a turn for the worse. Argh. So the workpiece gets smaller, and smaller, and so on....till I stop and sand the rest a bit..

Richard - yet another good idea.

Re: ? If I had a toolrest made.... *LINK*

Sean Troy

>Hi Mike, take a look at the tool rests made by John Lea. I have a couple of his and they are the hardest I've seen so far and the cost is low. Good luck, Sean


http://www.woodturningtools.net

Re: ? If I had a toolrest made....

Jorge Casta�eda ~ East Penobscot Bay

>Richard,

Would not it be better that the tool rest is softer than the gouge? I rather dress my tool rest than replace an expensive broken gouge. Am I thinking properly or there is something I missed?

Thanks

Jorge

Re: ? If I had a toolrest made....

Glenn Hodges

>John Lea made me a couple for my Poolewood. I love them, and highly recommend them. He made mine longer than usual for my large bowls. His double bars, and reasonable prices helped me make my decision to go with John, and I am glad I did.

Nashville, Ga.

Re: tool rest hardness

Lyn J. Mangiameli

>Below are some comments I made on tool rest hardness in a review of the KISS toolrest I did a couple of years ago.

The other �feature� of the tool rest, again, initially didn�t seem like it was a feature at all. This is the softness of the mild steel tool support plate. My initial concern was that it would quickly develop dings and cuts that would interfere with tool movement and be a constant chore to remove. Well, it does cut and ding more readily than the narrow hardened rod of the Woodcraft tool rest, or the round steel bar of the BestWoodTools, but not nearly as badly as I expected. Nor is it as much of a chore to maintain as I feared, and certainly no more than the tool rest that came with my Nova. A quick lick with some sand paper or a file cleans it up fast and fine. So what is the feature? It is that I find that the tool rest takes the abuse and my tools don�t. With the narrow hardened rod of my Woodcraft rest, I�d sometimes get dings in my parting tools (particularly fluted parting tools), skew, and even scrapes on gouges. These are hard to remove and I just don�t like having my tools take abuse and develop scars when the tool rest can instead. So now I consider that softer steel as a plus. James and I talked of putting a hardened rod across the top of his tool rest, but it would have effectively doubled the cost of the tool rest, and now I believe such a rod would be a drawback rather than an advantage.

Re: tool rest hardness

Mike Schwing from Maryland

>Once again Lyn, GREAT response. I'm sorry you guys have to repeat these things, but believe me, I value them and wish I was there the first time around.

Re: ? If I had a toolrest made....

Mark Kauder, Phenix City, AL

>Mike,

I like the somewhat softer rests for a different reason - noise. I love my Best Woods tool rests, but they are noisier then the cast Iron ones. I cannot imagine what a really hard one would ring like.

Mark

Re: ? If I had a toolrest made....

John Lucas

>Mike

I never did answer your first question. I've made several tool rests from drill rod. I don't harden it, just use it straight. I've been very happy with it. I haven't tried making a big one for my Powermatic yet. I'll get to that when I can borrow the schools blacksmith shop later this summer.

The case for a softer tool rest....

Russ Fairfield

>The two reasons for using a softer steel for the tool rest have already been discussed.

Heavy cutting loads and shock loads on the cutting edge result in heavy loads and shock on the tool rest. When the rest is a softer steel or malleable iron, these loads are absorbed in the deformation of the metal that makes all of those little dings and nicks in the top of the tool rest. When both are a hard steel, there will be a lot of noise, and you might find there are more catches at the wood end of the tool. If the loads are heavy enough, the smaller of the two steels can break or bend, and in most cases that will be the tool.

If you want "quiet" make a tool rest from a hard wood such as a hard Maple.

Re: ? If I had a toolrest made....

Peter Teubel

>I have a small dedicated belt sander for dressing tool rests, rolling the edge of new skews, and other grinding tasks.