Tool Review: Busy Bee Outboard Extension

[Doug Herzberg]

I posted my little gloat on the Grizzly Green Monster group page when this first arrived. One of the guys there suggested I do a review. Since I am fairly new at turning and this is my first foray into outboard turning, I decided to just post my observations and then answer any questions that come up, as I can't anticipate all of them. The Outboard Extension is 20-1/4" long. The ways are 4" wide, compared to 7" on my lathe and about 3/8" thick, compared to 5/8+" on the lathe. It comes with a small banjo, a swing arm extension and a riser for a 1" tool rest (not included). It has three holes in a triangle pattern with bolts that fit the tapped holes in the leg of the lathe (mine is the Grizzly GO698, but I think many of the 1847 lathes are the same). There are two tapped holes with matching bolts, but I don't know what they are for. The enclosed parts list mentions mounting to a 12" lathe, so maybe they are for that. There are no instructions.



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From bed to center is just over 15", from the top of the banjo it's 13-3/4" approx. At maximum extension, the tool rest is about 13-5/8" from center.

I mounted up a a blank just to try it out. The piece was an oval "round" of black walnut left by the sawyer about 18" x22" and 3/4" thick. I started by truing the face with a 1/2" bowl gouge. There was considerable flex in the swing extension, perhaps 1/4" when the gouge caught on a 1/8" cut. Based on this, I suspect there will be a lot of flex when the swing arm and banjo are fully extended.


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The rest of my turning experience was pretty good. There was a lot of tear out, but this is end grain dry walnut and I'm new, so that is to be expected. I don't blame the machine. I noticed a little vibration with scrapers and was not able to get as smooth a finish with a scraper as I did with a bowl gouge. This could be vibration in the tool rest, end grain, or my lack of experience. I was able to cut a recess, shape a platter, reverse and hollow without any problems I could blame on the equipment. It didn't seem too bad to me, but most of my experience is on my old tube lathe, where vibration was a constant.

One the Grizzly owners asked if the banjo which came with the lathe, which is much more substantial, fits. It does, but it is about 1" taller than the combination of the small banjo and swing extension, making the tool rest 1" above center. One could fashion a shorter riser without too much trouble. Here is a photo of the two banjos side-by-side:


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Before I try to mount up a big bowl blank, I want to think about fashioning some kind of tail stock so I can rough it between centers. (I also need to add some weight to my lathe, or bolt it down). I have some big blanks I want to try and will be happy to report, if I survive, but it will be awhile.

The cost was just about $100 CD, including shipping to CO, which I think is a bargain. It is certainly not a useless accessory. Laguna was offering what seems to be the same product for $140 last time I checked and sometimes has free shipping offers. Those are the facts I thought you might want to know. If anyone would like me to measure something or try something, or thinks of something I didn't cover, please let me know.

CAVEAT: Grizzly does not offer this extension. The manual suggests that diameters of outboard turnings be limited to 17", which defeats the purpose on an 18" lathe. The recovering lawyer in me suspects a products liability issue or worry about same, and overly cautious corporate counsel. My understanding is that Busy Bee is a sister company of Grizzly, but they probably have Canadian lawyers. (Don't be offended, Canadians, that is a compliment!)

[Fred Belknap]

Doug looking at the banjo on the extension it sure looks like an exact copy of the articulating banjo that came on my G0462 lathe. I read in some forums that it had a tendency to break which could cause an injury. Grizzly still sells that banjo on the G0462. I replaced the one on mine with one from a Delta machine and it made me feel a lot safer. Doing large turning puts a lot pressure on he toolrest so be careful. That extension may be just fine but it looks kind of scary. BTW I replace the G 0462 with the same lathe you have. Sent the G0462 to an auction and got $100 for it, maybe about what it's worth.
IIRC you can use the banjo without using the articulating portion.

[Roger Chandler]

That extension on the banjo ...........I have seen that configuration on several lathes over the years.........every report I have heard is that one gets vibration with that swing arm.

I ordered a second tool rest for my lathe, because I have a duplicator, which requires two banjos to mount to the lathe bed. I suppose one could order a second one, and cut it [grind or machine?] down, that might give you more stability, but getting all the angles that a swing arm allows might be questionable.......perhaps a trade off?

Thanks for posting this, Doug.

[Richard Allen]

It is curious that such flimsy solutions are the norm for conditions where more stress is likely. These solutions are dangerous. This solution can be beefed up to make it less dangerous but the cost of such modifications will likely make the solution more than twice as expensive.

Make legs for the free end of the extension to reduce the flex in that the under built extension is sure to have (3/8", 4" wide). You can solve the banjo issue with a Oneway banjo. This is a terrific banjo that stays put without any hint of flex. The lack of flex will transfer the stress to the light weight bed extension which could become the failure point.

The other solution to turning big items is to turn this on a bigger lathe. Unless you are going to be turning a LOT of large items you can very likely visit a turning friend with a bigger lathe for those occasions where more swing is needed.