# Grizzly G4003G steady rest too small; options?



## keeena (Mar 12, 2020)

First time needing to turn a long-ish piece in the lathe and found that the steady rest has a really small capacity; maybe up to 1.5" diameter. Is this normal for hobby lathes?

It seems you could make shorter length fingers and adjuster screw; adjustment range would be less but would allow you to get up to about 3.5" on this particular steady rest. Unfortunately don't have the right tools to make the fingers and you can't cut the existing fingers down because you'd end up removing the internally threaded portion (the whole bore is not threaded, just the end opposite of the bearing).

Just wanted to see if there was anything I was overlooking...

FWIW, I am turning, facing and boring the ram from a hydraulic press. Its 2" OD and needs some clean-up; the end of the ram OD is a bit mushroomed and the bore which holds push adapters is mangled. The stick-out is about a foot and figure better to support it. There might be a way I can  sneak a long center in the bore, but doesn't help for boring and could interfere with facing ops.

Finger w/ bearing






Adjuster screw





G4003G parts listing: Link


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## fitterman1 (Mar 12, 2020)

*Mount it in your chuck and bore it out.
Would
 this be possible without altering any design elements?*


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## LEEQ (Mar 12, 2020)

2" shaft won't go in his spindle bore. I don't have any great suggestions, but I know where there's a will there's a way. I'm curious what you come up with.


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## fitterman1 (Mar 12, 2020)

LEEQ said:


> 2" shaft won't go in his spindle bore. I don't have any great suggestions, but I know where there's a will there's a way. I'm curious what you come up with.


What i meant was mount the steady in the chuck and bore out its id.
I did this to mine for my g0602.


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## fitterman1 (Mar 12, 2020)

Bear in mind i did it on another larger lathe.


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## rgray (Mar 12, 2020)

It's been years but I remember that problem. Typical china "kit" you're left to finish it and make it work.
I cut the screws down to get it to work with the pictured size.
It still closes down to smallest size.
I did something larger once and if you loosen the outer set screw and pull the grooved collar out and re tighten the set screw on top of the groove you can gain some diameter ability there also without further mods.


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## keeena (Mar 12, 2020)

@rgray - what you pictured is exactly the problem I'm dealing with. I did also consider sliding the whole assembly out and just use the gib screw to lock the finger. Unfortunately I'd loose the ability to fine adjust, but you're right that it could work in a pinch.

Thanks for posting your measurements. My fingers are also longer than they need to be; i took a look and mine also can go way past center. It looks like I could take 0.375" off the threaded end of the finger, still close to zero and still have reasonable amount of thread in the finger. This would get to about 2.250" diam stock. Works for this job, but still pretty small capacity don't ya think? Anyway - off to shorten them now. 

@fitterman1 - the ID of the steady rest frame isn't the limiting factor; its the fact that the fingers only retract far enough to allow ~1.5" stock. That said, the steady's frame ID is pretty small (about 4"). Boring it larger wouldn't help; the frame design is just too small to handle anything bigger than about 3.5" (if you made stubby fingers).


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## fitterman1 (Mar 12, 2020)

I hear you, on my 0602 i wanted to make a chuck for holding rifle bolts.
The material was 3" diameter, but i couldn't fit it in my steady. So i took the steady to work and chucked it, then bored it out to 2 13/16ths and cleaned it up. Then i could fit my material and true it up. Couldn't remember what it was originally, but it worked and did the job well. 
Good to see you can get around it to meet your objective.


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## LEEQ (Mar 13, 2020)

Good stuff. I'll have to keep it in mind for my 4003.


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## Cobra (Mar 13, 2020)

keeena said:


> First time needing to turn a long-ish piece in the lathe and found that the steady rest has a really small capacity; maybe up to 1.5" diameter. Is this normal for hobby lathes?
> 
> It seems you could make shorter length fingers and adjuster screw; adjustment range would be less but would allow you to get up to about 3.5" on this particular steady rest. Unfortunately don't have the right tools to make the fingers and you can't cut the existing fingers down because you'd end up removing the internally threaded portion (the whole bore is not threaded, just the end opposite of the bearing).
> 
> ...



This was what I had to do for my G0750G.
Made up three new fingers.
Doesn't take long to swap them back and forth.
Jim


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## RodSME (Mar 13, 2020)

I have a Grizzly G4002.  Some time ago I did a modification to the steady rest to adapt cam followers as rollers.  Cam followers are a better approach than ball bearings because they can handle a much higher load and are designed for this type of application.  This mod also allows a 2" diameter shaft to fit.  I don't know how similar the 4003 is to the 4002, but the approach may be similar.  You can find a .pdf file as a post I did April 3, 2017 that describes the design.  Hope this helps.


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## keeena (Mar 14, 2020)

@Cobra - thanks a ton for the specs; at some point I'll definitely have to make a set like those. If only I had a mill...

@RodSME- thanks for sharing; the cam followers seem like a better idea. And that's quite the workholding setup in your write-up. 

I got the job done the other night just by cutting down the fingers as much as I could while leaving enough thread. Thanks for all the great suggestions! The ram and press adapter are fixed and re-installed in the shop press; back in business!


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## Cobra (Mar 15, 2020)

Glad to hear it worked out.


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## epanzella (Mar 16, 2020)

I made another set of fingers that were shorter. They also work in my follower rest. I didn't bother duping the rollers. The rounded ends work fine.


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## keeena (Mar 17, 2020)

Those came out nice @epanzella. Easier than the bearing route. In doing some other reading it does seem like bearings are not a great idea (generally) - could use light press fit tips in brass/bronze/delrin.

If modding the OEM fingers: could just chop off the notched section for the bearing (instead of the backside). Then you'd maintain a good thread engagement and bore at the end can be cleaned up for a press fit insert. No mill needed.

I also read a hint where the individual put a through-hole in the top slider and filled the finger with a bit of oil; said it helped to constantly lube the area. Neat idea.


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## epanzella (Mar 17, 2020)

keeena said:


> Those came out nice @epanzella. Easier than the bearing route. In doing some other reading it does seem like bearings are not a great idea (generally) - could use light press fit tips in brass/bronze/delrin.
> 
> If modding the OEM fingers: could just chop off the notched section for the bearing (instead of the backside). Then you'd maintain a good thread engagement and bore at the end can be cleaned up for a press fit insert. No mill needed.


I thought about shortening the original fingers but there was no length that would allow me to use the full capabilty of the steady rest with a single set of fingers. With the two sets I can grab stock from 1/4 inch all the way up to the full bore of the steady as the short fingers will withdraw until they are flush.


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## aliva (Mar 19, 2020)

I had a similar problem with my rest , I welded about 1 inch of treaded bore to the out side of the frame, that way I could back the finger out further, allowing me to use the full diameter of the frame bore


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