Something slightly different

Production of floats has been on hold a week or two whilst I spent some time putting together an extended tool rest for a friend's Proxxon DB250 lathe.

A lot of folk think it's perfect for float making, the size is certainly convenient but personally I'd like a quick-drilling tailstock and a slower minimum speed.

The factory tool rest is not only short but also aluminium and easily scored which makes smooth passes with a gouge a little awkward. Not all users are bothered as a lot would use glasspaper almost exclusively, but if you want to get a body concentric around the axis of rotation a tool on a test is essential.

Here's my offering about to be posted to the friend in bonnie Scotland...

150mm long, 12mm diameter in 303 stainless should be a little more difficult to score, although there's quite a bit of twisting force you can apply at either end due to the leverage of the longer tool rest which the alloy plate doesn't handle that well, maybe that's why Proxxon only offered the short tool rest. We'll see how the testing goes.

Meanwhile, back to the floats next post...

Interlude

For a break from the pairs or sets of near identical floats worked on recently, I picked out one of the single floats awaiting finishing, a cork on cane waggler, on which I decided to experiment with some alternative whipping. Whipping for me up until now has been like Henry Ford's model T, available in any colour so long as it's black.

So, here it is in its raw form, looking a bit chintzy like an old school tie...

And a closeup after a couple of coats of sealer and 4 or 5 coats of lacquer. 

Fortunately the red still mellowed a little despite the sealer, a couple more coats of lacquer to go and we're done