Another place for everything…

I’ve been neglecting the lathe for a few weeks as I’ve been playing with a MIG welder and having fun with that, but this evening I decided it was time to do some work on the lathe itself and so I built the following…

Sorry the picture’s a bit rubbish, it was taken on my phone. I had some galvanised sheet in the workshop from a garage door that I took off (it’s always worth hoarding some bits, you’ll never know when they’ll come in handy). I made a bracket on the left hand side with this steel and drilled/tapped two 4mm holes in the main column to attach it – breaking one tap in the process but thankfully I had another.

The other end is attached with a screw & washer through an existing hole on the leg. I used my forstner bits to drill the large holes for the tools, and had to make the left hand one larger still to fit the ferrule of my bowl gouge.

Happy with the new addition I turned the outside of a 6” * 3” Alder lump which was really nice to turn, and had a small area of spalting which looks rather nice on the side of the bowl. I’ll post a picture once it’s finished.