follow rest retrofit

I bought a lightly used Bolton qc9325A metal lathe it is 10 x 18 it came with a 3 jaw a 4 jaw steady rest and some cutters. I contacted Bolton with the idea of getting the follow rest for it. And was told they had no follow rests left and the unit was not supported by parts any longer. My idea is to find something close and make one work. I have not much metal lathe experience ( wood lathe mostly) but is there some ideas out there as what I should look for and what not to do in retro fitting. I am looking at a rest for 9 inch lathe Palmgren # 9684506 and starting there. What I see so far is that my lathe bolts the rest with vertical bolt holes that go in the top of the apron ,Most go horizontally bolted. Any thoughts?

Check at http://littlemachineshop.com/. They have loads of stuff.

Kind regards,
Rich

ok thanks I will call them and see if they have anything that crosses over.

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Originally Posted by david privett

ok thanks I will call them and see if they have anything that crosses over.

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This is the one I have.
http://littlemachineshop.com/product...ProductID=3399

If they don't have one that fits directly, it occurs to me it may not take much to make a bracket to adapt one of these.

I've had excellent service from LMS. They are also always ready to answer questions.

JKJ

yeah I was thinking since my lathe has a 10 inch swing I would use a rest from a smaller lathe to give room for needed conversion brackets and still be able to center the rest. How far do you think I can go off to the side and still get enough support to minimize the works deflection. Or does the support need to be exactly behind the cutting tool.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by david privett

yeah I was thinking since my lathe has a 10 inch swing I would use a rest from a smaller lathe to give room for needed conversion brackets and still be able to center the rest. How far do you think I can go off to the side and still get enough support to minimize the works deflection. Or does the support need to be exactly behind the cutting tool.

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I've always thought a follower rest needed to be very close to back up the tool pressure but that might depend on the diameter and stiffness of the work piece. Seem like you might make nearly any size rest work by machining a replacement base with the right attachment holes and welding/bolting/brazing it to support body of the rest.

JKJ

well I contacted little machine shop and busy bee in Canada and neither one have one that would directly cross over . Anyone got someone else I could check with before I try to make one fit.

I bought a no name follow rest off ebay it came off who knows what, but it was smaller swing so I did have room to make a offset bracket . It is about a inch from where the tool would normally cut from hopefully that will not be so far off that it allows to much deflection but it has to be better that nothing.

Its a 10x24 Chinese made lathe, try looking on Grizzly website or MSC to find one like it. They copy one another back and forth.