Oneway 1224 tool rest alternatives

[Steve Tiedman]

I love my new Oneway 1224, but I think the tool rests could be better. Even with the angled relief of the post where it meets the rest, the horizonal rest bar is somewhat short in height and I find my "tool rest" hand brushes or hits the post. Shy of homemade or one-off machine shop built, are there recommendations for aftermarket tool rests for this lathe? I have both the 11" and 6" versions of their rest. Thanks!
https://oneway.ca/11"-Stainless-Steel-1224-Toolrest-(1"-Post)

 

[Lou Jacobs]

Trent Bosch has just come out with a line of very nice looking tool rests. Check them out at trentboschtools.com.

 

[john lucas]

Look at the Robust rests

 

[Dave Landers]

And Steve Sinner (advancedlathetools.com)

 

[hockenbery]

find my "tool rest" hand brushes or hits the post.

Trent’s rests look great haven’t used one.
Sinner rest a nice too haven’t used one

I have several of the Robust rests. Our club has several also.

The comfort rest may work for you - two potential down sides. The bottom edge of the rest can hit the tool on some pull cuts and the Bottom edge can prevent the rest from fitting inside smaller openings. These rarely occur but be aware..
That said I’ve done many bowl demos with this rest and one time I had to turn it backwards to get my pull cut

I love the J rest for hollowing bowls and bought one for my jet 1221

 

[Richard Coers]

Where are you putting the tools that you find that the rest doesn't have a long enough shaft? Your tool hardly ever should go about above center. If you are at the budget end of turning, Penn State's rests aren't bad.

 

[Steve Tiedman]

Thanks for all the 3rd party rest ideas. Funny, at Steve Sinner's site he has a note from Trent Bosch on how well he enjoys Sinner's tool rest. (Likely before Bosch started building his own.)

I just spent some time looking critically at the banjo and tool rest and how my hand naturally engages with them. When the rest is dropped at a typical, arbitrary, non-measured height below machine axis center, from top of banjo to top of rest, that height is 2" +/- a fraction. Here are a few pics, more of a mock-up (no wood on the machine). The rest is actually a bit higher in the pics but still below center. As I/we can see, along with my middle finger finding the post, my ring finger is grazing the top of the banjo.

It seems the method Oneway chose to clamp the rest, on the operator's side of the banjo vs. the common right side of the banjo, may result in the banjo being proportionally taller where the rest inserts vs. how other clamping designs may be arranged on other similar height lathes.

Rather than investing in different tool rests which may, in the end, not provide the clearance I initially inquired about (which turns out to be more clearance to the banjo that the rest post), I am going to try adjusting my hand grip with the tool, and an even more deliberate rest height out of the banjo (put some etch marks on the rest post like I've done with my Vicmarc lathe), and when called for utilize an overhand grip more often.

Now that I've looked closely and analyzed what I've experienced, I may be able to simply retrain nearly 30 years of muscle memory to make this what it likely is- a non-issue.

Thanks again for the ideas, I'll explore them more if necessary.

 

[Bill Alston]

The best tool rest shape is a very personal thing. I’m not sure I’d get on with that OneWay rest either. One of the demo lathes at my club is a Nova and I don’t like the look of the rest that came with that, it’s very flat. Some of the current Nova rests have gone back to the traditional concave shape that I like. I like to slide my forefinger along the underside of the rest and have resorted to sanding or even milling this area smooth to enable free movement. This is the type that I like, sold by Axminster.

 

[Bill Alston]

This is one of the current Nova rests, they look pretty good. The have interchangeable post.

 

[Richard Coers]

The best tool rest shape is a very personal thing. I’m not sure I’d get on with that OneWay rest either. One of the demo lathes at my club is a Nova and I don’t like the look of the rest that came with that, it’s very flat. Some of the current Nova rests have gone back to the traditional concave shape that I like. I like to slide my forefinger along the underside of the rest and have resorted to sanding or even milling this area smooth to enable free movement. This is the type that I like, sold by Axminster.

4th picture looks like the rest is really high.

 

[hockenbery]

@Steve Tiedman
I see your grip has all your fingers on the tool. Have you considered a different grip?s
My grip is sort of minimalist thumb to top forefinger on the side of the tool.
The other hand engages the cutting edge.
This grip doesn’t work for everyone.
Here are a few views from a video

 

[Dean Center]

For spindle turning, we start our students with the tool rest AT the lathe axis, since we want the students to work on the top half of the wood, and have them start with the tool horizontal. We have all sizes of students, and a few different lathe heights, so sometimes this positioning proves awkward, but it's a starting point.

You didn't mention what you're turning, but if you're angling your tool up at the angle shown in the first picture, your tool rest may be too low, or your lathe too high relative to your height. For pull cuts on bowl blanks or Ellsworth style shear scraping, such an angle would be appropriate, but a more horizontal angle is generally used for most cuts. I suggest you have someone take a look at your body mechanics or take some photos for you to review, to see if the problem is something other than your tool rest.

 

[Steve Tiedman]

@hockenbery, that's what I mentioned I was going to work on, changing my tool grasp, now that I've seen my own photo. 20+ years of Vicmarc, I've not had to take grip into consideration.

Speaking of Vicmarc, they have a good selection of 1" (metric equiv) and M33 toolrests available as well. They've changed the profile of the horizontal section of the rest over time, looks better than what is on my older gen. machines.
https://www.vicmarc.com/product-page/toolrests-camlocks

 

[Steve Tiedman]

You didn't mention what you're turning, but if you're angling your tool up at the angle shown in the first picture, your tool rest may be too low, or your lathe too high relative to your height.

In that photo, I didn't even have wood on the machine, I was just playing around, holding the tool with my left hand while taking a blind phone photo with my right. I'm equally versed and long experienced in both spindle turning (large to small) and faceplate/chuck turning. That photo was a loosy-goosy attempt to show a general hand-machine relationship, I wasn't trying to mimic precise cutting ergonomics.

I do maintain a relatively tall lathe height. The old rule of spindle center at elbow, I adjusted that idea many times in the early years before settling on having the inside bend of my 90-degree bent elbow match the spindle center height. This works very well for me vs. spindle center at tip of elbow bone height (with a 90 degree bent elbow) or somewhere in the 3.5 - 4 inch zone in between, for both spindle work and faceplate work. But not one smidge higher, any higher starts to mess with tool control.

 

[Steve Tiedman]

The best tool rest shape is a very personal thing. I’m not sure I’d get on with that OneWay rest either. One of the demo lathes at my club is a Nova and I don’t like the look of the rest that came with that, it’s very flat. Some of the current Nova rests have gone back to the traditional concave shape that I like. I like to slide my forefinger along the underside of the rest and have resorted to sanding or even milling this area smooth to enable free movement. This is the type that I like, sold by Axminster.

View attachment 65343

Hi Bill, the Axminster, is that a 2-piece rest? Is the post threaded into the horizontal rest? (The image makes me think so.) Do you own the Axminster? I agree with you, that's the profile I've always liked best.

 

[robo hippy]

I consider the hardened drill rod, or case hardened rests like the Boxmaster rests from D Way to be essential. I don't like the curved rests, or ones on a section of tubing similar to the Robust rests. I did make one for test purposes when I made my bowl rests, that was set at the 15 degree angle that my bowl rests were. This just feels better to me. I think Jimmy at D Way does sell case hardened rod that you can epoxy to the top of your standard rests. Maybe if I did a lot of table legs or long spindles, I would want a 30 or so inch long one for that purpose, and I would probably make a wood one, angled at 15 or so degrees. I do need to work on my spindle turning....

robo hippy

 

[R Henrickson]

Maybe if I did a lot of table legs or long spindles, I would want a 30 or so inch long one for that purpose, and I would probably make a wood one, angled at 15 or so degrees. I do need to work on my spindle turning....

robo hippy

I use Robust rests almost exclusively, most often the "low profile" version. In part this is due to my doing a lot of spindle work, but even for most other work I prefer this version. I don't have any curved rests.

I have made a number of Windsor chairs. I use a 26" rest which I found online for maybe $15 long ago for turning the undercarriage pieces. I made a second banjo rather than buy one. Back posts for a couple types of chairs are even longer, so I may make a longer one from wood.

 

[Bill Alston]

Hi Bill, the Axminster, is that a 2-piece rest? Is the post threaded into the horizontal rest? (The image makes me think so.) Do you own the Axminster? I agree with you, that's the profile I've always liked best.

Yes, it’s a modular system like the Nova. I don’t have that exact one, my Axminster rest has a very similar profile but one piece. The modular one wasn’t available when I bought mine. Some rests I’ve had in the past have been quite rough so I’ve used abrasive paper to smooth them out.

 

[Steve Tiedman]

And 6 months later... I recently decided to upgrade my Oneway 1224 tool rests. I've got the 6" and 11" Oneway rests. I bought the 6" and 9" Robust Low Profile rests. Their Comfort Rests are too tall for this lathe banjo, as Robust made me aware of at purchase time. They have longer versions, but these should serve nearly all my needs. As photo 1 shows, they needed some cosmetic tune-up right away. On the front face, where the rod is welded to the rest (painted welds visible on the back side), it looks like epoxy may be used under the paint as a gap filler. It was a bit lumpy under finger, so I took a little Dremel sanding drum to it and gently smoothed it out. The overall paint coat had a few micro air bubbles, or dust specs, dried into it which were very noticeable to the touch of my baby-soft fingers. A light rub with 400 grit paper took care of that. Instantly, both rests had the look of hundreds of hours of loving use, and I won't feel bad about any cosmetic wear I give them from now on.

The second and third photos show the profile differences to the Oneway rest (held in my hand). The Robust is far more comfortable than the Oneway for an underhand grip with its curved surfaces behind and below the fingers, and no more knuckles jabbing the tool rest post of the Oneway. Overall, quite satisfied, a good purchase.