Robbo
22nd Jul 1999, 09:11 PM
How many times have you been doing the final cut on your masterpiece when your chisel gets stuck on your tool rest? Generally the result is a dig in or at least having to do another cut from start to finish.
This can be caused by a couple of things: a nick in the rest caused by a chisel leaving a groove (parting tool is good at this) or a build up of sap or other garbage.
In our place we clean the rests with thinners first and then take out all nicks with draw filing. To do this place a good quality file at nearly right angles to the rest and applying light pressure pull the file toward you. This will remove most nicks in a couple of passes. Do this at different angles to maintain the radius on the top of the rest (WHAT, you don't have a radius? Well you should have.) If you really have bad indentations use a power sander to remove the bad ones. After filing use about #180 paper to finish along the length of the rest to polish it. Clean off with thinners and wax it lightly. We use a product called SieberGleit, stuff that is exceptionally slippery and used for saw tables, jointers, band saw tables etc.
My tool rests are all treated like this as soon as I make or buy them. Very few proprietry rests are the right shape but with a little effort they can be made much more user friendly.
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Ian (Robbo) Robertson
"We do good turns every day"
[This message has been edited by Robbo (edited 22 July 1999).]
This can be caused by a couple of things: a nick in the rest caused by a chisel leaving a groove (parting tool is good at this) or a build up of sap or other garbage.
In our place we clean the rests with thinners first and then take out all nicks with draw filing. To do this place a good quality file at nearly right angles to the rest and applying light pressure pull the file toward you. This will remove most nicks in a couple of passes. Do this at different angles to maintain the radius on the top of the rest (WHAT, you don't have a radius? Well you should have.) If you really have bad indentations use a power sander to remove the bad ones. After filing use about #180 paper to finish along the length of the rest to polish it. Clean off with thinners and wax it lightly. We use a product called SieberGleit, stuff that is exceptionally slippery and used for saw tables, jointers, band saw tables etc.
My tool rests are all treated like this as soon as I make or buy them. Very few proprietry rests are the right shape but with a little effort they can be made much more user friendly.
------------------
Ian (Robbo) Robertson
"We do good turns every day"
[This message has been edited by Robbo (edited 22 July 1999).]
