Rest apparatus

A rest apparatus for supporting a cylindrical portion of a workpiece to be machined comprising:

• a base;
• a support head fixedly mounted on said base;
• a pilot shaft supported at the opposite ends thereof by said support head and provided with a piston portion;
• a rest housing having a cylinder bore to form a hydraulic cylinder with said piston portion of said pilot shaft so as to be moved toward and away from the workpiece;
• a guide shaft supported at opposite ends thereof by said support head in vertically parallel relationship with said pilot shaft for guiding said rest housing;
• a pair of rest shafts slidably but non-rotatably received in said rest housing in parallel laterally offset relationship with said pilot shaft;
• a pair of rest shoes operatively connected to one of the ends of said pair of rest shafts for horizontally and vertically supporting the workpiece, a first one of said rest shoes including a first support area for the horizontal support of said workpiece and a second one of said rest shoes including a second support area for the vertical suppprt of said work, said first support area being adapted to support said workpiece in a horizontal plane located in a range extending from the axis of said workpiece to the vertical height immediately above said axis;
• and
• feed means operatively connected to said pair of rest shafts for feeding said pair of rest shoes toward the center of the workpiece,
• wherein the axis of said pilot shaft is in a horizontal plane which lies between said rest shafts and intersects said first support area.