NWG tool rest

[Jason Fry]

The NWG has a full sized tool arm bracket on the bottom for a tool rest. I never set mine up that way, as I've never ground using a tool rest. Finally as I'm doing a few larger blades, I decided some sort of tool rest would be helpful. Here's what I came up with. I used some 3/4" square tubing and 1/2" key stock. I threaded in a couple of 6/32 screws to keep it in the arm tight, and I used some of the same screws, countersunk, to attach some 3/16 plate to the key stock. The result is a tool rest setup that I can build multiple rests for and interchange like tool arms. Never seen one on the 'net, so I thought I'd tell you folks about it.

Here it is in video, because all that text doesn't make much sense without a picture.

[video=youtube_share;y8_pa9NCAKM]http://youtu.be/y8_pa9NCAKM[/video]

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

That will work, but it would be far better if the arm shaft was bigger than 1/2". I would think 1" would be sufficient, and 1.5" a beefier choice.
Also, if you attached it to the lower side of the grinder arm socket, you would have much more available flat platen surface to work on.

 

[Jim McGuinn]

On my KMG clone I have been thinking about dropping the rest another inch or two to get more use of the platten. Its already mounted on the bottom of the arm, but the extra room would come in handy sometimes. Also my work rests are 18 inches long.