# large capacity mini lathe steady rest



## MCRIPPPer

here is a steady rest im making for my 7x16. it should hold pieces 3" or a little bigger.


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## Don B

MCRIPPPer said:


> here is a steady rest im making for my 7x16. it should hold pieces 3" or a little bigger.



That will be nice, might want to check you bearings on your machine you have a couple of flat spot on your main through hole:rofl:

Seriously though nice work...!)


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## MCRIPPPer

LOL



yep. that band saw doesn't do curves to well. lots of metal to still take off.


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## Don B

MCRIPPPer said:


> LOL
> 
> 
> 
> yep. that band saw doesn't do curves to well. lots of metal to still take off.



I'm not sure how the bedways are constructed on your lathe but is it an option to push your steady with the saddle and use a boring head right on the lathe, it will give you the main through hole perfectly positioned and you can use the power feed...!:thinking:


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## MCRIPPPer

i thought about it but cant figure a way to let the steady rest move, and still stay rigid.


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## Don B

MCRIPPPer said:


> i thought about it but cant figure a way to let the steady rest move, and still stay rigid.



It really depends on how the bedways are constructed, if there the open type a large brass washer would provide a temporary gib plate, but the bedway thickness would need to be constant over the length of the cut, you might get away with a little inconsistency by using a heavy spring to preload the gib plate and take small cuts.


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## MCRIPPPer

got the center bored out. its about 3.4"


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## 12bolts

Nice work, do you have a plan for getting your steady fingers all straight and perpendicular?

Cheers Phil


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## MCRIPPPer

its really not critical, but to make it as close as possible, i think i will find center, and then spot drill three dimples using coordinates to make the 120deg 
angle. the fingers will just be a round polished steel rod with a keyway. locking screws will serve to align the keyway and lock it down. so all i need to do is drill in line with the center point of the steady rest bore. the angle is not really a big deal, although i want to try to get it as close as possible.


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## MCRIPPPer

made some progress. i used the tilting head capability of my mill finally, and drilled the holes for the fingers. im waiting on a reamer to finish the holes. also waiting on drill rod to make the fingers out of. they will be 16mm diameter.









then i went on to mill the outside of the steady rest. since i dont have a rotary table, a harbor freight bandsaw wheel had to do. i machined the wheel to fit really tight in the bore of the steady and bored the center of the wheel out for a tight fitting hub. the setup worked well and left a surprisingly good finish. 










its amazing how far this hunk of steel has come.


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## David Kirtley

Nice work. Make sure you get my mailing address right when you ship it.


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## MCRIPPPer

make sure you add enough zeros when you write me a check for about 2x10^3.


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## David Kirtley

Are you going to make the fingers with bearings or just brass/bronze? You have a project that will need that much capacity or are you just making it big enough to handle anything you can chuck up in it?


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## MCRIPPPer

im planning on putting some bearings on it. i mostly made it big enough to do most things that will ever come up. go big or go home. 

i have wanted a large steady rest for a few things involving pipe/tubing. the largest steady rest you can buy for this lathe is 2"


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## David Kirtley

I have the little one that they sell and the follower with the bronze jaws.

When I first saw it, I thought, "Hey, that would be so much easier to bore on a faceplate on the lathe". Then I realized that if it were on a faceplate, it would hit the ways.


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## MCRIPPPer

i thought the same thing. "cant i bore this in my lathe?" turns out its impossible to make a steady rest for a lathe on that same lathe. (unless you have a gap bed)


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## JimDawson

Great job, a very nice looking steady rest.  And some great setups for milling the work., I especially like your radius cutting fixture.

I do disagree with both you and David Kirtley on boring that on the lathe.  Given that you have a mill, you did it the same way I would have done it.

If I were going to bore that on the lathe, I would turn the lathe into a jig boring mill.  Sometimes you have to think outside the box.

Attach the steady rest to the cross slide and build a tool bit holder for your 4-jaw chuck.  The vertical and horizontal position is set by the steady rest riding on the ways, and supported by the cross slide.  Make a pass, adjust the tool, rinse, repeat.  By spacing the steady rest off of the cross slide, you can make the hole larger than the clearance over the cross slide.


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## MCRIPPPer

i thought of that, but how do you attach something to the carriage without drilling or tapping? (my lathe has no t slots) it doesnt seem very rigid to just set the steady on the ways and somehow link it to the carriage.


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## JimDawson

If I needed to do that on my lathe, I would not hesitate to drill and tap the cross slide.  But I think that is not necessary, there are t-slots under the compound, and you have a big t-slot on top of the compound.  Also you have a nice solid tool tool post to work with.  Maybe combined with a c-clamp or two and proper support, you would have a very ridged setup.  It just takes a little fixture engineering.


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## xalky

MCRIPPPer said:


> i thought the same thing. "cant i bore this in my lathe?" turns out its impossible to make a steady rest for a lathe on that same lathe. (unless you have a gap bed)


 Thats not entirely accurate. If the base is made in 2 pieces and either welded or bolted together after the boring is done, it could be made on the same lathe.


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## MCRIPPPer

ok. making a steady rest out of a solid piece without a mill is difficult.


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## zmotorsports

Very nice work.   Thanks for sharing the pics with us.

Mike.


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## Surprman

Nice work.  I especially liked your work around for the lack of a rotary table.  I'm in the same boat.  There are too many other things I would rather buy at this point.  I'll definitely consider your set up if I need to mill a curve on something.

Rick


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## MCRIPPPer

made some progress. i got my reamer and finished the holes. still waiting on the drill rod. decided to fix one  of my "oopses" with a little solder. 






heres a mock up using some old crusty 5/8" rod. looks like all the bores line up pretty good!


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## David Kirtley

Is there a reason for choosing drill rod or is it just because it comes in accurate dimensions?


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## MCRIPPPer

because of the accuracy. and its pretty tough stuff too. its also cheaper than linear rod or shafting material. 

i dont plan on hardening it.


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## David Kirtley

MCRIPPPer said:


> because of the accuracy. and its pretty tough stuff too. its also cheaper than linear rod or shafting material.
> 
> i dont plan on hardening it.



I was cutting some linear rod down and tapping the ends a while back. That was the most miserable stuff I have worked with to date. 

What thickness stock did you start with?  1" or is that 1-1/4?

I might have to give one a go once I get caught up on some other projects. Looks like it would really be worth the effort.


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## MCRIPPPer

its cut from 1" flat bar.


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## MCRIPPPer

finally got my material. will start cutting! stay tuned.


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## MCRIPPPer

started making the fingers







milling the bearing slots 









milling the slot for the key/nut






completed


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## MCRIPPPer

here's my progress. internet was acting up so didn't update for a while. got the steady rest to working state!


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## David Kirtley

Congratulations. That looks really great. What size were the bearings?


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## MCRIPPPer

bearings are 14mm od, 8mm id, 4mm wide.


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## MCRIPPPer

its almost there. i just need to make some knobs for the lead screws.


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## zmotorsports

Very nice job.  

Mike.


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## MCRIPPPer

an otherwise impossible feat accomplished on a mini lathe. facing a 3" dia. round 8" long.


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## Marco Bernardini

MCRIPPPer said:


> an otherwise impossible feat accomplished on a mini lathe. facing a 3" dia. round 8" long.



Bravo!
It's almost like facing the first stage of a Saturn V on a LeBlond… :biggrin:


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## MCRIPPPer

"going where no mini lathe has gone before"


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## Don B

MCRIPPPer said:


> an otherwise impossible feat accomplished on a mini lathe. facing a 3" dia. round 8" long.



That turned out very nice, well done, you've made yourself something that will be very useful..!)


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## samthedog

Nice work. You just eliminated the need to upgrade your machine... ever.

Just kidding, just post when you build the next steady for your newer, larger lathe in a years time :whistle:

Paul.


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## MCRIPPPer

yep. been looking at the sieg sc8. not too expensive and is supposed to be pretty good.


but i think a better mill is more urgent. my x2 is crap.


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## jayman

Don B said:


> I'm not sure how the bedways are constructed on your lathe but is it an option to push your steady with the saddle and use a boring head right on the lathe, it will give you the main through hole perfectly positioned and you can use the power feed...!:thinking:



This can work well. I rebuilt the tail stock on my 7x14. Aligned the ram with the spindle bore using 4-40 jack screws driven into the base. Then epoxied the two parts together and doweled them after the epoxy cured. Then sleeved the bore and bored it out to fit the stock ram. Had just enough bed length to do it, and I'm happy with the result. I did spend a lot of time beforehand manually sanding the clamping surfaces parallel to the lathe axis to provide for smooth, shake-free tail stock motion along the lathe bed during the boring operation. Mounted the stock tool turret on the compound and used it to push the tail stock toward the head stock with power feed during the boring operation.*Give it a go!*


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## dulltool17

Very nice work!


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