odie
TOTW Team
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When you get right down to the nitty gritty.........when you make those few final passes right before you're ready to sand a surface, it's very helpful to have your tool slide smoothly and effortlessly on the tool rest. The tool slides best with a very delicate hold, and there are a few things that are easily done and will make that tool slide smoothly across the rest.
There are several things that control the tool as it slides along the tool rest......your hands, body movement, the contact surfaces between your tool and your tool rest.
Not much you can do about your body movement. All of us have what we have. A good well positioned stance is necessary. Hopefully we all can make our tools "flow" with great smooth movements of our bodies......resulting in that nice artistic curve.
Your hand is in contact with the tool rest. You can make your hands slide better on the tool rest in a couple of ways. You'll notice I've applied some black plastic electrical tape to the back sides of the tool rest where your hands will contact this surface. There is one rest that has some red tape, and this is Teflon tape. I've found the black plastic electrical tape to work just as well as the expensive Teflon tape. You should apply some thumb pressure against the bare metal of your tool rest, and slide it across the surface. Then apply some tape and test again......compare. I've found that my thumb slides across the bare metal pretty well, UNTIL some pressure is applied. With pressure, adding the tape makes for a better and smoother sliding surface for your hands.
The plastic tape works very well, but if you want to improve on that, wear a cheap soft cotton glove.....that, along with the tape, makes it like greased lightning!
I have almost twenty tool rests, and use most of them......but, I highly recommend the Robust tool rests with their hardened steel top surface. This hardened steel surface makes tools slide better than any rest with a softer top surface.
One of the best things you can ever do to make tools slide on the tool rest.....is to highly polish the tops of the tool rests, and the corresponding contact surfaces of your tools. For years, I was using 220 or 320 shop rolls for this purpose, but about a year ago, I tried a 3M deburring wheel, and the level of polish I now get is astounding!......and the polishing is done VERY quickly, only a few seconds is all it takes. (Be sure to polish the bottom, AND bottom corners of your scrapers and skews.) These are expensive wheels, but last a long time........and I wouldn't think about doing without them now!
I get these wheels, partially used, and no longer usable for polishing stainless medical instruments from my place of employment. Mine have a 1" hole, and since I have a lathe, making an adaptor to a smaller motor shaft was easy enough to do. I've googled these deburr wheels, and see there are a number of versions, and most all of them would be great for polishing tools and tool rests. Here's the specifications on mine:
3M Scotch Brite
8S FIN
EX2 Deburring wheel
---------------------------------------------
One final thing.......keep the gunk from accumulating on the tops of your tool rests. A couple of quick swipes with a 3M pot scrubber pad (get them at your grocery store) is all it takes to remove residue from the tops of your tool rests.
ooc
.
There are several things that control the tool as it slides along the tool rest......your hands, body movement, the contact surfaces between your tool and your tool rest.
Not much you can do about your body movement. All of us have what we have. A good well positioned stance is necessary. Hopefully we all can make our tools "flow" with great smooth movements of our bodies......resulting in that nice artistic curve.
Your hand is in contact with the tool rest. You can make your hands slide better on the tool rest in a couple of ways. You'll notice I've applied some black plastic electrical tape to the back sides of the tool rest where your hands will contact this surface. There is one rest that has some red tape, and this is Teflon tape. I've found the black plastic electrical tape to work just as well as the expensive Teflon tape. You should apply some thumb pressure against the bare metal of your tool rest, and slide it across the surface. Then apply some tape and test again......compare. I've found that my thumb slides across the bare metal pretty well, UNTIL some pressure is applied. With pressure, adding the tape makes for a better and smoother sliding surface for your hands.
The plastic tape works very well, but if you want to improve on that, wear a cheap soft cotton glove.....that, along with the tape, makes it like greased lightning!
I have almost twenty tool rests, and use most of them......but, I highly recommend the Robust tool rests with their hardened steel top surface. This hardened steel surface makes tools slide better than any rest with a softer top surface.
One of the best things you can ever do to make tools slide on the tool rest.....is to highly polish the tops of the tool rests, and the corresponding contact surfaces of your tools. For years, I was using 220 or 320 shop rolls for this purpose, but about a year ago, I tried a 3M deburring wheel, and the level of polish I now get is astounding!......and the polishing is done VERY quickly, only a few seconds is all it takes. (Be sure to polish the bottom, AND bottom corners of your scrapers and skews.) These are expensive wheels, but last a long time........and I wouldn't think about doing without them now!
I get these wheels, partially used, and no longer usable for polishing stainless medical instruments from my place of employment. Mine have a 1" hole, and since I have a lathe, making an adaptor to a smaller motor shaft was easy enough to do. I've googled these deburr wheels, and see there are a number of versions, and most all of them would be great for polishing tools and tool rests. Here's the specifications on mine:
3M Scotch Brite
8S FIN
EX2 Deburring wheel
---------------------------------------------
One final thing.......keep the gunk from accumulating on the tops of your tool rests. A couple of quick swipes with a 3M pot scrubber pad (get them at your grocery store) is all it takes to remove residue from the tops of your tool rests.
ooc
.
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