The second photo shows one of the rods being turned with its' free end supported by a live center. When turning such small diameters, tool height becomes hypercritical. If your tool is too low, the part rides over it and bends. If it's too high, the cutting edge is held off the part by the metal below it, resulting in high cutting forces that deform or break the part. Either way, you get garbage. You can see some of the fallout from failed efforts at the top of the first photo. I used a steel tool instead of carbide. It gave a better finish on this particular material, and could be honed to a sharper edge.
nose of many Dremel tools have a ferrule attached by threads in the motor housing. The Dremel people use these threads to affix different attachments to the tools. You can too. I've provided a drawing with dimensions showing how to make an attachment that will allow you to fix your Dremel tool to your tool post. The odd shape of the part allows it to be held in a three jaw chuck for boring and threading. I made mine 
out of half inch thick aluminum, using my mill. If you don't have a mill, you can do the same thing using a band saw or even a hack saw, if you have the time and patience. It doesn't have to be perfect, just good enough to be securely held in the three jaw chuck. I threaded mine using a tool with a 60 degree point installed in a boring bar. It was the first time I had made any internal threads using my lathe. I did practice on a few pieces of scrap before trying it on my part. If you make one of these, do be careful while turning your threads. The "tail" of the part sticks out from the chuck, and can hit you or the ways or the saddle if you don't pay close attention to setting up your lathe and tooling prior to threading. Always turn things over by hand before starting your lathe with any setup, make sure you have stops installed to keep the saddle from traveling too far in towards the chuck, and keep your fingers out of the way. The last photo shows the Dremel motor installed in the tool post attachment, which in turn has been installed in the QCTP. Keep in mind that this is, after 
all, just a Dremel tool, attached by it's plastic housing, and have realistic expectations for what you can do with it. As always, you the reader are free to make whatever changes to this design that you please. If you do, I'd very much like to see your results. I'm also interested in seeing what you guys are planning to do with this attachment.
three quarter inch thick 4140 steel with no problems, and with reasonable enough speed through the part that the work didn't become tedious. The band saw seems to be handling metal cutting just fine. The rough work piece was held in my three jaw chuck using a 3/8 inch bolt. The head of the bolt is trapped behind the chuck jaws, and passes through the part. The part is clamped to the front of the chuck jaws with a nut. This method works fine to bring a rough part into a mostly round shape, so it can later be held in the chuck jaws, but it's not terribly accurate otherwise. In the photo there are rough areas still on the outer circumference of the part. Those will be removed later while 
holding the part from the inside recess that has yet to be cut. The part is next held with the outside jaws in the three jaw chuck, and a recess is turned to fit the factory hand wheel. I'm sure sizes will vary from lathe to lathe. I made my wheel so that the factory hand wheel was a sliding fit into the recess. Others have made these replacement wheels so they are pressed on or held in place with a grub screw that bears on the outer surface of the factory wheel. There are certain situations where the new wheel can interfere with the compound slide hand wheel, so it's desirable for the new wheel to be easily removable. Mine slides on easily and is held in 
place by a button head screw that fits into the threaded hole in the factory wheel where the handle originally fit. The original hand wheel does not have to be pounded or presses into place, is not modified in any way and is not marred by a grub screw. It fits securely, and has no play between the factory wheel and the new hand wheel.
of the parts being made later. The clamp is not absolutely necessary. The compound base as designed by Mr. Pitkin used four bolts and four independent clamps. I wanted a single four bolt clamp to hold mine down, just because. I had some problems with interference between the clamp and the rest of the compound rest, so I'm holding off on giving dimensions till I know I have things right and everything fits. Until then, enjoy the drawing.
substantially heavier. I think I've also managed to build the new ring clamp so as not to interfere with any part of the upper half of the compound rest, and to make the bolts accessible regardless of it's position. 
where the added rigidity comes from. You can see this in the last photo, and that's why I included it. I'll end by saying that I made this base and ring out of 4140 annealed, which is considearably more difficult to machine than 1018, which is what I've been accustomed to using and what the first four bolt clamp is made of. 4140 is considerably harder on your tools and bits as well. It is stronger though, and strong is what I was after. I've also updated the first photo with dimensions. All lathes are different, use these dimensions at your own risk.
compound originally came equipped with three gib screws. As you can see from both photos, it now has six. I know it looks a little busy, but it does remove the tendency for the slide to rock around when at either end of its' travel. Time and use will tell if this modification was worthwhile. As for now, the slide does seem smoother to operate, with less play. The lathe's saddle slide has also been equipped with only three gib screws. I may eventually look into new screws and a new gib there too.
installed in a chuck mounted on my rotary table. I've just started milling the square projection that will become the base for the steam chest. The second photo shows the part with the square projection finished. I've started machining the round outside of the cylinder that intersects the square projection. I ran into a little trouble here because I wasn't working from a drawing, and I hadn't really thought through what I was trying to accomplish. As a result, I did end up with a round cylinder, with a square projection on the side, but by the time I had figured how to get a round shape with a good and flat surface finish, I had a smaller cylinder than I had wanted, by about .050". Yeah, I know, that's a lot. The third photo shows the finished part, and the arbor I 
used to mount the part in the chuck. The projections on the arbor cylinders are very slightly tapered, and are drawn tightly into the hole in the aluminum cylinder by the threaded rod. Other than the part being smaller that I had planned, because I got ahead of myself and didn't plan enough, I did get what I wanted. I'm working in the dark here, so if any reader has suggestions, or can provide a link showing the right way or a better way to accomplish what I want, your input is welcomed. Had the cylinder turned out exactly right, I would have bored the center hole out to 3/4 inch and proceeded to cut steam passages for the steam chest.
