An Improved 3-point Outfeed Support

Once upon a time I had a yen to convert my bench model drillpress into a floor model. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the store-bought 7ft length of 2-1/4" dia DOM tubing had to be turned down .020" on one end to fit inside the headstock casting! I figured I could do it on the lathe, if only I could figure out how to support the loooong end. The Myford outfeed support can't hold anything larger than 2". There is plenty of clearance on the lathe to hold something twice that diameter but there I was. There was nothing to do but make a new one. Took about a week to get my shit together but now I've got a monster drillpress and a great lathe accessory bwahaha!

Photo #1: Original Myford part on the left and my version on the right. Had to photoshop the image a bit as it's anodized black and details would otherwise be hard to pick out. To save time I machined it so that I could do a direct swap of the Myford hardware.
Photo #2: Closeup of the beastie. Made from material I had on hand, the thing is whittled from inch thick chunks of 6061-T6 aluminum. The milled circular slot at the bottom is deeper than it needs to be; I'd make it a lot smaller if I did it over. Wrench clearance was what I had in mind but I went a little overboard.
Photo #3: Rats! Can't find the photos I took of the thing in use. They'll turn up one of these days...

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