Hey Guys! So I’m making a “solid tool-post riser” for my lathe to replace the compound rest. I have a Grizzly G0602 which has notoriously awful rigidity in the compound. I have never been able to complete a parting operation on this lathe so I hope making a solid tool-post riser will help. I have an Accusize (Chinese made Aloris style) AXA quick change tool-post that has actually been pretty decent, so I want to continue to use that. I have a total budget for this project of $40, so I’m trying to use only materials that I have laying around to keep that budget towards tooling. So that’s why the design is a little different.

I don’t have anything tall enough, so unfortunately I can’t make it all one piece. But, because I’m making it more then one piece, I’m adding some dowel pins to be able to clock it into different positions. There will be an 8 hole pattern between the tool post and the riser block to be able to clock it 45* and a 12 hole pattern between the riser block and the base plate to be able to clock it 30. Between the two pin patterns I should be able to clock it down to 15 increments. When it’s in the 90* position, I’ll be able to add to “side plates” to add extra rigidity. These side plates will bolt onto the riser block and will have each a set screw to push against the tool post. The set screws will be at the same height as the dowel pins so it’ll (in theory) hold the tool post against its alignment pins rather then against the center post. Hopefully that’ll mean the center post will only be holding the tool-post down to the riser block and not have any lateral load applied to it. This is similar to the RobRenz version, but probably not quite as nice.

Currently there are only 2 bolt holes in the cross-slide, so I’m going to add 4 more so the whole assembly will be held on more rigidly. I plan on making a new compound clamp later on (similar to the Clough42 one) and I plan on using the same six holes for that too. Unfortunately all I have is mild steel, so it won’t dampen vibrations as well as cast iron would, but it’ll probably still be less “chattery” then the compound is.

Anyway, the Imgur link has an album with the CAD screenshots, I’d love it if you guys could take a look and give some feedback and your thoughts. I’m open to suggestions on ways to improve the design because I haven’t made chips yet, but unfortunately I do have to stick to the materials that are in the shop already. Thanks for reading!