A little while ago, I bought an older lathe of craiglist (craftsman 113228160) with the plan to try and learn to turn bowls. I set it up, bought some inexpensive tools off ebay, did some research online to get a vague idea what I was doing, cut up some black walnut with the chainsaw and had at it. I have few tools, no jaw chuck and no experience but I was able to make a pretty nice bowl. There were a couple of failed attempts and a lot of mistakes but that's part of the learning process. However, I may have ended my new hobby before it really began. I loaded up a large blank today and was going to rough it out. I was worried that it was too large (it probably was) so I wasn't trying to round it in earnest, just trying to figure out if it was a mistake to work with a piece this big on this lathe. I had the tool rest up and locked and tried to lightly using the roughing gouge to see how it would go. It chipped off a little and then caught a bit and the tool rest holder snapped in two. I guess it was extended a bit but it didn't seem that the catch was that violent. (I suspect many reading this are muttering "idiot" at this point but it's not the first time, so I can live with that.)
Here's the big problem: the tool rest holder is a part no longer available. I did an online chat with searspartsdirect.com with no luck. So am I now stuck with a lathe I can't use because I have no tool rest? Any ideas?