So my new tool rest is still a work in progress...

[Don Orr]

Joshua,

I think you will be fine if the post is not "perfectly" round as long as you can tighten it enough in the banjo so it doesn't slip. The only way to find out is to try it and see. Just take a little off at a time until it fits and tighten it up and find out. I bet you will be OK. The fit is not meant to be super tight or you would have a hard time getting the rest in and out of the banjo.

[Harvey Schneider]

If you can spin it at low speed by the end of the post, a mill file should take off about 0.001" per stroke. Then just reduce the area that the chuck held it by. That will leave it very nearly round and with a smooth finish.
Harvey

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Thanks to one and all for the all the useful replies. I decided to try again with the sand paper. It started to work. I think I have been spoiled by sanding wood all this time.

I really up'ed the pressure of my grip and it started to take off the metal as others had expected it would. I spent an hour on the couch watching "The Davinci Code" and going through Sand paper. When I could really get it to bite in it would fill the sand paper with the same kind of steel powder that comes off of the grinder when shaping tools. I worked my way from 60 to 100 to 150 grit paper. The post is now all shiny and still (AIIGGGHHH!!!) a touch to big. It fits into the banjo but does not move with any ease at all. *sigh*

The worst part is that I worked on it long enough and with enough force I kind of sprained my wrist. It has been pretty unhappy for the last few days. I must be getting old. Naw!!!! that can't be it.

So I figure back at it with another round of 60, 100 and 150 should get it the right size once and for all. But hey it went from way way to big to being so close it hurts!

Thanks again for the great suggestions!

Joshua

[Scott Conners]

Joshua, I had my dad weld me up a 5/8"x12" toolrest for my Jet mini out of some scrap cold rolled steel, and he just ground it lightly with an angle grinder to make it shiny before he gave it to me. Even with that, it was slightly too big in a couple of places (it wasn't totally round) so I pulled it across my grinder's 60g wheel a few times on the high spots. Remember that it only has to touch the hole in a few spots to be held properly - even though mine isn't perfectly round I don't notice any difference when using it, it moves great and locks solid every time.

[Wes Henson]

Try a file instead of sand paper. If you don't have one you can get one cheap. When they fill up you can clean them rather than throw them out. Can also file things while they are on the lathe

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Try a file instead of sand paper. If you don't have one you can get one cheap. When they fill up you can clean them rather than throw them out. Can also file things while they are on the lathe

I do have a file. I used to keep my current tool rest in shape. I had thought about the file. I had also thought about chucking up the rest in my lathe. I decided however that the whirling death that could ensue from chucking it in my lathe and spinning it could be disastrous.

I might try the file for the rest of it. At the moment I am just waiting for my wrist to recover so that I can hit it with the sand paper again.

Joshua

[Scott Conners]

I had a thought: vice-grips with a few layers of towel padding around the sandpaper - even steady pressure, and you just turn the toolrest as you hold the pliers. Or maybe a V-block with sandpaper stuck to it. Wrists are important in turning, so save em!

[Joshua Dinerstein]

I had a thought: vice-grips with a few layers of towel padding around the sandpaper - even steady pressure, and you just turn the toolrest as you hold the pliers. Or maybe a V-block with sandpaper stuck to it. Wrists are important in turning, so save em!

They are indeed! And well worth saving. Mine is on the mend but I won't be doing that again.

I did finish my new tool rest. Works perfectly! In the end I started using smaller sand paper and instead of grabbing a piece as wide as my fist, thereby increasing the size and the amount of pressure I felt I needed, and instead used a piece about 1.5" wide. IO was able to grab it with 2 fingers and reduce the pressure and still take off some of the steel.

I did go back and verify on the second bolt I was given how hard it really was and this tool rest started it's existance as a grade-8 steel bolt on a train of some type. The guy I got it from claimed it had been found near the train tracks near his home anyway.

Always important to recycle!

Thanks to one and all.
Joshua

p.s. I decided to make another one in a different shape, after all can you really have to many? , and talked to a friend at work and Steve put it on his metal lathe at home and spun it down in mere seconds. In fact he managed to turn the 1 1/4" bolt I had been given down as well. Looking at what he had to remove I just had to cringe at the thought of doing that by hand! OUCH!