I turned the knob you see on the tailstock.
I was looking up ways to make the toolrest online, and I found a design I liked, but my tax return came in that weekend .....
It was a good bit more than I expected, so I went to harbor freight and bought me their Mini Wood Lathe. This wooden one is carefully stored away in case I ever wanna bring it out and play with it again.
The design I came up with calls for a vacumn cleaner motor that I salvaged from one that was tossed out in the trash, it still works fine. I was partway through building the housing for the motor as well. In order to turn that knob, I simply took my cordless drill and chucked the spindle up in it and turned it right there between dead centers.... then I sanded the back of the handle smooth before I attached it with epoxy.
The build was fun ... I researched the hows and whys of what to do step by step online before I came up with the design and got started. It took me 2 months looking at scrap wood and metal before I found what I was looking for in the hardware.
I seriously thought about making up a pen mandrel for it and doing a pen in the Turning Challenged just because Derek said that only pens turned on a "Wood Lathe" were eligible ...
