Tool rest post trouble

[3thumbs]

I recently bought a HF 10 speed lathe, and it seems to work fine. The problem arose when I bought a 4" tool rest with a 1" post at Woodcraft. The supposed 1" hole in the HF banjo is just a few thousandths too small! HF offers no optional tool rests but the one that came with the lathe, a 12 inch rest. I guess I have no option but to take the banjo to a machine shop to drill the hole a bit larger. Has anyone else had this trouble?

[Black wallnut]

Always mill the less expensive part FWIW. is the post removable? Do you have a jaw chuck, if so can you chuck it up in the lathe and use a file to mill it down a few thousandths until it fits?

[woodturner]

The supposed 1" hole in the HF banjo is just a few thousandths too small! HF offers no optional tool rests but the one that came with the lathe, a 12 inch rest. I guess I have no option but to take the banjo to a machine shop to drill the hole a bit larger.

I agree with BW, better to trim down the tool rest. If it is only two or three thousands oversize, you can probably just sand it with emery paper to make it slightly smaller. You may find that just chamfering the edge is enough to get it to fit in the tool rest.

Another option is to pick up a used tool rest for a Jet or Delta.

Have you talked to HF customer service? Maybe your tool rest is undersized to their specs and they will repair or replace it under the warranty.

[mpc]

If you have an HF store nearby, take your new tool rest to the store and try it in their display models. That way at least you'll find out if yours is undersized or "HF normal." And if the staff knows you... they may be willing to swap your existing banjo for a display model one that works. I've had a local store do something similar when an item had cosmetic damage. I spoke to the store manager when I arrived and told him of the situation and asked about a part swap rather than returning the whole item; he agreed so I grabbed the oddball part out of my car. I didn't carry it in at first - I didn't want to be seen later "walking out with some stolen part" - until after he knew the situation. Bring both tool rests to make sure your HF rest isn't sloppy-loose in the potential replacement banjo.

mpc

[phrog]

I had exactly the same problem. I just sanded the paint off the tool rest post and it went in correctly. This only took me about 10 minutes. The tool rest was made by Jet (also a 4") and I have the HF 34706 (? - I believe that's correct) lathe. I thought the Jet post would fit since the lathe appears to be a Jet clone; but it was just slightly too large - about like the hair on a frog's back.

PS: I think the hole in the banjo may have been drilled to the correct diameter but then they paiinted it and the thickness of paint kept the post from going down. Rather than removing the paint rom the banjo, I removed it from the post.

[3thumbs]

The post that I bought from Woodcraft was threaded, so it will fit several rests.
The hole in the banjo was quite a lot too small for the 1" post, about .035. I wound up taking it to a friend's hot rod shop where he had a metal lathe. We chucked up the new post and turned it down just enough so it would fit into the banjo. This way I can use the HF rest that came with the lathe, or the new post with any threaded rest I can buy.
Thanks guys for the input. It all worked out.
DM