if you have a big lathe, can you tell me the diameter of the rod in your banjo please

I am in the process of building a lathe and am working on the banjo. Trying to use the cam lock design seen on many lathes, and am wondering what diameter rod to use to span the ~16" length of the banjo. If you have a Robust, Powermatic, OneWay, etc, could you tell me what the diameter of the rod is on your banjo. Thank you in advance.

Assuming you're referring to the tool rest hole and post that fits into the banjo? The Powermatic 3520 has a 1" post opening

I believe the OP may be referring to the "tool support rod" which runs under the banjo. http://www.ereplacementparts.com/pow...637_32638.html

thanks, but what I am referring to is the rod in this picture
http://www.penturners.org/forum/atta...njo-banjo5.jpg

Robust AB is 1.25".

wow that is bigger than I expected. I thought it would be 7/8" or 1" at most.

The Laguna Revo 1836 has a 1" rod.

The locking rod on my G0766 (a fairly big lathe) is roughly 3/4 inch in diameter. I am away from my lathe right now - - otherwise I'd give you a more precise number. But the C-clip at each end is spec'd on the parts list as 19mm. So that gives you a fairly close number.

You may consider going on-line with Grizzly and checking out their parts ordering. You can buy all of the major parts for their banjo for under $80. For example, the casting is 48 bucks, the rod is $18, etc.

I think that the confusion is that several posters (like Steve S.) were commenting on the diameter of the tool post. The Griz tool post is 25 mm but 99% of the owners bore it to 1".

The rod on the PM3520b is 34 mm, or 1.3385 in.

I think that Don Bunz is referring to the tool post diameter too. When I look at the picture of the banjo on the PM website I can see that the tightening rod is smaller than the tool post. A larger diameter tightening rod will work, but it will raise the height of the tool post and in some situations will limit the diameter of what you can turn.

If you can go to someone in your area or to a Rockler store (or equivalent), bring a mic or a caliper and measure. Otherwise, you are going to be sizing the tightening rod to the dimensions of the tool post.

http://images.powermatic.com/image/1...&fmt=png-alpha

The tool rest post is 1" dia. The rod under the banjo, which is what we are talking about, is 1.338 in.Attachment 354649

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dustin wassner

I am in the process of building a lathe and am working on the banjo.

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So you are building a banjo from scratch?
Would you be able to post pics / plans etc?


Because I need to custom build one for my lathe. its very old and I can’t find a suitable size on the market, so it will be DIY.


Thanks

Don Bunz: I stand corrected. And "Holy Moly" that shaft is wide!

I made my banjo with 1" round bar stock.

Attachment 354693Attachment 354694

thanks for all the repsonses.

Dale, what is the length of your banjo? I am looking to make one roughly 15" long and was hoping to go with 1" 4140 as I thought it would be stronger. But there have been enough replies to this thread with larger diameter rods than 1" that I am concerned that if I use 1" it will bend if the eye bolt is in the center of the rod when clamped.