On 5 Feb 2004 21:27:30 -0800, (Bob Itnyre) wrote:

Bridger I had the same question/situation a few years ago. Here is
how I solved it.
I turned a little device, shaped to slide into the T slot that the
lantern style tool post goes into. If you can imagine, this device
looked like two stacked silver dollars with two quarters centered and
stacked on top. I drilled a tapped a 5/6 x 18 hole in the center of it
and slid it into the t slot.

basically a Tslot nut? I have a mixed lot of misc Tslot nuts. hafta
see if one might work.



I got a piece of 1 1/2 angle iron about 5
inches long. I drilled a hole in one of the sides of the angle iron
that a 5/16 bolt would fit through. I laid it on top of the compound
rest, with the hole aligned with the tapped hole and slid a short bolt
in and presto I had a tool rest that I could adjust around as needed
and put my wood turning tools on it to turn wood.

this will probably be my first approach. I like that it involves the
least amount of changing the current configuration. it has a couple
of drawbacks that I can see- it eats up a couple of inches of swing
(of which I have little to spare) and it leaves some easily removeable
precision sliding parts in the waste stream of wood chips.





By the way Grizzly
sells a number 3 morse taper spur center if you need to turn spindles.

they als sell a #2MT cup center for the tailstock. Got 'em : ^ )



Of course you might have to adjust sizes to fit your needs. Beauty of
it is, it is real fast to set up and take down,

easy back and forth from wood to metal. nice.



and also it rides on
the existing carraige so your ways don't have some alien device on
them, possible gurring them up.

this is a real concern.




Drop me a line if you have any
questions. Keep turning. Bob


thanks
Bridger