Hi Kevin
I have a few pictures of home made too rests in on of my photo albums,
I like my rest angled steep so the rest does not interfere with my
turning tools, and flat, not round, though I do have a couple heavy
duty curved round ones, but the longer distance of the fulcrum of the
round tool rest to the wood, does make it a lot harder to control the
tools.
The flat tool rest gets the turning tool close to the wood, and
there's also enough room under the rest to keep your fingers there if
you need to do that.
Have a look if you please.

http://homepage.mac.com/l.vanderloo/PhotoAlbum25.html

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

On Sep 11, 9:21 am, Kevin wrote:
In addition to the buffing supplies I asked about a week or so ago,
another item has been added to my wish list. I have a Jet 12-36 and
it serves my current needs admirably. However I would like to change
the tool post and rest. Any opinions (boy, there's a question asking
for it!) about the shape of the tool rest? Round perhaps like a piece
of 1" round stock? Flat like a piece of angle iron? What works for
those of you that have had both? Pros and cons of both? Thanks for
the info.