Nothing is worse than having a woodturning tool roll off your workbench and crash into the shop floor. If you’re lucky, you may only scrape the handle. If not, it may be off to the sharpening station to remove a chip in the cutting edge of the tool. I had experienced this one too many times while working at the lathe. To prevent it from happening again, I built this handy lathe tool rack to keep my turning tools close-by, and more importantly, safe from damage.
I designed my tool rack to slip over the bed of my wood lathe. But it can be customized to fit other size lathes, as well. The sides have notches that act as the actual tool holders. These are easy to form at the band saw. I also cut dadoes in the sides to hold the bottom platform. This platform should be cut to the width of your lathe bed, plus the depth of the dadoes. I then added a cleat to the underside of the platform that slips between the ways.
