For quite some time I have wished for longer and shorter tool rests with a hardened bar welded to the top to (hopefully) greatly reduce dings in the top part of the tool rest.
Being in Australia anything from overseas is often a long time in gestation and sometimes quite long with delivery, unless you expedite the delivery by selling your spare arm or leg.
Recently I found out that Vicmarc were now selling their latest ergonomic designed tool rest for their lathes. As their big lathes all run 30mm tool posts and their small lathes run 25.4mm tool posts, I wondered about getting one or two of them to suit my 25.4mm diameter banjo. Unfortunately, Vicmarc do not make these with the hardened steel top with the 25.4mm tool post.
A bit of fast talking between a Vicmarc dealer and Vicmarc, resulted in Vicmarc custom manufacturing a trio of tool rests for me. A bevy of tool rests; 100mm, 200mm and 400mm for my lathe with a 25.4mm tool post.
They arrived this morning and although it was freezing holding steel, I braved the elements and had a go. Before using them, I took some pictures before they were tool marked.
In one picture you can see the 304.8mm OEM Laguna tool rest, which I considered a high quality item. It still is a high quality item and the top doesn't have a single nick in the 6.35mm hardened steel rod welded to the top. But after using the Vicmarc tool rests, with their more ergonomic shape, larger 9.53mm hardened steel rod welded to the top; the OEM tool rest will certainly get far less use.
Follow this link, scroll down to see their short clip further explaining their array of tool rests.
Lathe Accessories: Toolrests and Camlocks
Mick.
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