A neighbor of mine has a welder, and I had acquired a couple of 15" long x 1/4" diameter hardened dowel pins, He welded the rod to the cast iron tool rest, and made it so nice. It glides now. Photos to follow. Not the prettiest weld, but it holds well enough.
Hi Mark, I've wondered about whether the process of welding the hardened steel pins would "anneal" or soften it. As an experiment, you might try the "file test" to see if there are any softer areas. Did your neighbor tack weld on the pins or lay a continuous bead?
The neighbor tack welded at each end about 1/2" long, then about 4 other tack weld about 1/2" long evenly spaced. He used an abrasive wheel to cut a groove first so the dowel rod had a place to rest while being tacked. I photo tonight, and file test it; although it sure seems tough for little bit I've had a chance to try it.
Sorry, no pictures yet. But I did check with a file, and directly above each of the welds the rod has been softened a bit. Between the welds it is still not able to scratch with a file. Note to self - watch out for the annealed portions with sharp edges of tools. My neigbor said it blued the steel rod a bit when welding, but it was easily removed with a bit of sanding paper. It's still way better than it was.
Mark, yes, you are right -- it is surely a lot better than it used to be. You have significantly improved on your tool rest. I don't use my Griz cast iron tool rest very much. When I do, I find that it is very easy to nick. But I have a bunch of home made steel tool rests that rarely need to get filed. When I get some drill rod, I might try epoxying it on my cast iron rest. I've heard of some company that does that for their production, although I don't recall who. I also thought of silver soldering. But with "real" silver solder (30, 40, 50 % silver), the liquid point of the material is still around 1400-1500 F, which would also anneal the rod I think. With plumbing silver solder (like 3, 4, 5 % silver) the melting point is much lower - - like 400 to 500 F and it is unlikely to do much to soften a drill rod. Thanks for your posting.
Pictures posted above of the modified tool rest, and check out my new thread for the DIY Hollowing System. I could not get the photos to add, sorry. The modified toolrest can be seen on my thread DIY Hollowing System.
Mark, pics posted lately are not showing up to the group........I sent a PM to the administrators, and they said some parts of the forums are broken, and the tech people are in the process of doing some upgrading, and that the groups are basically low priority as far as fixing them. Just FYI, because I cannot view the pics of the toolrest you speak of, so I am thinking no one else can either, but I could be wrong. Brice had issues with pic posting and so did I.
