short T-rest for wood lathe

Woodturners use tool rests when turning. My Powermatic 3520 came with a 14" long toolrest. I wanted a shorter one that would fit between my headstock and tailstock when turning small Christmas tree ornaments. The Powermatic aftermarket 6" toolrest (P/N 6294739) costs $60 ... $70 after shipping.

I decided to make my own, and did it in about 40 minutes in the shop.

Here's what the original 14" toolrest looks like.

Here's the old toolrest next to a weightlifting bar.

Using a cutoff saw to cut off the two sections I need.

The two pieces layed out.

First I use an angle grinder to put a shallow notch across the top end of the vertical bar, to help the cross piece nestle down in a bit (not shown).

Then I set up the weld with magnetic squares.

Then I place a few tack welds to hold things together.

Then I come back and fill in the gaps with longer welds.

Clean up the weld with a wire brush cup.

The bar was chrome plated, which is chrome over tin over copper over the steel bar. The first touch of the wire brush removes weld spatter and dirt, but if you brush it for more than a second or two you expose copper. That's not a problem for functionality (your skew chisel, gouges and scrapers don't know what color the toolrest is!), but if you like a nice clean silver look, don't let the brush linger!

In use - the tool rest fits right in between the headstock and tailstock!

P.S. My machinist calipers show the original toolrest as being 0.997 inch in dia, and the exercise bar I used was 1.002 inch in dia, and either that extra .005 in makes a difference, or there were a few burrs on the bar (and/or the bar had a slight bend in it), so it stuck a bit in the banjo / cross slide. I ended up taking it back out, putting it in the vise, and lightly going over the bar with a grinding disk to just knock a thou or two off.