# Shop Made Steady Rest



## Maddogmech1 (Mar 22, 2015)

When I inherited my Atlas QC54 lathe, it came with no tooling, the original 3 jaw and the tailstock with only an old rusty drill chuck. I had a need to bore the inside of a 3' piece of 2-1/2" thick wall pipe, with no way to do it on the lathe, so I decided to build a steady rest for it finally. Didn't take any pics of the build, but it's pretty easy to see the pieces and how they are made (I'm still pretty new at machining). The tips of the fingers are tiny 10mm sealed ball bearings. 




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## Getaway (Mar 23, 2015)

Nice work. Thanks for sharing.


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## timvercoe (Mar 23, 2015)

Maddogmech1, I like that, nice....

Tim


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## tweinke (Mar 23, 2015)

Nice design! You should post more pictures of that, looks like a nice design.


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## Maddogmech1 (Mar 23, 2015)

Thanks for all the likes and kind words. I will post more pics of it if there's an interest. It is very rigid, but there are few things I would change for the next one I build. I'll get better pics hopefully tonight


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## rrjohnso2000 (Mar 23, 2015)

Yes please share. Pics and improvements. Looks very solid, what are the dimensions?


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## Maddogmech1 (Mar 23, 2015)

Here are some more pics. The ID of the main circle is 6" roughly. I'm not sure what it was originally, perhaps some hydraulic cylinder cut off, it was scrap from a large machining company. The section I got was about 8" long, so I had to cut it down, I scribed a line around it using my height gauge, and cut with a torch, allowing some room for machining down to the scribe line on a rotary table. Then milled out the slots for the fingers to slide in with a 3/4" endmill, simply using the degree marks on the RT to find the 3 points. I then mounted it in the 3 jaw on the lathe, and machined the base to a sliding fit on the ways, pushed the base up to the circle and scribed a line for the flat on the bottom of the circle. The fingers are pretty self explanatory, machined from solid CRS to match the slightly oversized slots in the circle. I then used a hand file to get a nice smooth sliding fit in the slots. As you can see in the pics, the bearing slots were cut, , then an endmill used to create a flat spot where the bearing retaining bolts go, then drill and tap for the 5mm bolts (only bc those were the smallest size bearings I could find on eBay). Then I made the finger adjustment screws, just 5/16 all thread. The ends I turned down to 3/16, just a nub for a pilot hole on the bearing-end of the finger, the other end I turned just the threads off to press into the knobs, and used a groove tool to cut slots for the E-clips that push the fingers up and down. I did make small washers that go between the finger shoulder and the E-clips. I made the knobs next, and not having a good knurling tool, I used a 3/16 endmill to make the finger grips you see, I kind of like that look better than knurling anyway. Knobs are a press fit with high strength loctite on the adjusting screws. Next was the finger locks, just three pieces of hot roll, I used the 3/4" endmill again and slotted all three at once. Then marked and drilled all the holes for the cap screws, but mounted the fingers to the circle, clamped the locks on them, and used a transfer punch to mark on the circle. At this point, I number stamped all the pieces so they all go back to the same spot. Drilled/tapped the circle, countersunk the locks for the cap screws and tapped for the lock bolts. Then it was time for the washer that goes on the 1/2" bolt that holds the base/circle/way lock together. I didn't have much meat left on the bottom of the circle, so I needed to match that arc with the bottom of the washer. My hack-n-slash brain of my former years came into play, so I set a piece of CRS under the circle, scribed a line using the arc, and attempted to use a grinder to match the arc. Yeah right. Even my belt sander wouldn't get it right. So my newly acquired machining brain kicked in, and came up with a better way. I used a piece of 1" CRS stock, lined up the washer on the end of it and welded them together. I then centered it on my RT, same distance from the spindle center as the radius of the circle, and side milled the arc. I quickly found out where I was off with the grinder lol! Anyway, perfect fit with the arc in the circle. The way lock is simply a 3/8" plate with a slot milled in the center, and the 1/2" bolt I milled the hex into a T to fit in that slot. Lastly, the circle and base have alignment dowels between them. 

Changes I'd make: the slots that the fingers slide in are too thin, as in the bottom of the slot, which the finger relies on to keep perpendicular to the work, needs to be thicker. This would mean a thicker wall pipe for the circle, or to cut one from thick plate steel. This would also give the advantage of doing away with the arc washer and allow more material to machine a flat into the bottom of the arc on the ID. Also, I would align the circle to the base, and bolt the two together, would make handling a lot easier. I may do that still anyway. 

This was a very fun project for a beginner hobby machinist, one I think anyone could do. The only advantage I have is my 12" rotary table that a lot of hobby guys might not have. But there are ways around that. I do recommend the method I used to mark the base to the circle, mounting the circle in the chuck, and sliding the base to it and scribing, it assures perfect height. 


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## randyc (Mar 23, 2015)

Beautiful work, Mad dog, I'm envious !  I hesitate to even post this crude thing but it illustrates a point.  I made this little steady rest for my 8 x 18 Emco some 30 years ago.  At the time, I had only a 115 volt Craftsman MIG welder so the welding on this thing is bird s--t, as you can see LOL.




The point that I wanted to make is that I "tinned" each of the jaws of the steady with a good coating of bronze brazing rod.  Then I put an end mill in the lathe spindle, snugged the steady rest to the ways, turned on the lathe and gradually pushed the steady rest into the cutter, both by hand and with the tailstock ram.  The result is a pretty good bearing material and a centered set of jaws.  The steady rest has been well-used over the years, obviously


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## Maddogmech1 (Mar 23, 2015)

I'm sure you spent a lot less time making steady rest and more time making parts than me lol I can't even tell you how many hours I have on building mine. I'm very slow still, trying to keep myself from cutting corners. I like the idea of the endmill in the chuck, may come in handy for future projects I have in mind...


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## sgisler (Mar 23, 2015)

Very nice job! I spent what seemed like an inordinate amount of time on mine as well, but happy with it also. I like the roller fingers on yours. I thought about it but went the easier way - brass tipped bolts. 


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## Maddogmech1 (Mar 23, 2015)

Thank you. The bearings I got from eBay, they were $1 a piece, I bought a sleeve of 10. Good thing too, because 2 of them exploded 5 minutes into boring. So you have to be quite careful with how much pressure you have on the fingers. Once I figured that out, it ran smoothly, and I even got a halfway decent finish. Most likely I will buy a couple more sleeves of bearings just to stock up


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## randyc (Mar 27, 2015)

Maddogmech1 said:


> ...I'm very slow still, trying to keep myself from cutting corners...



Being slow is not a bad thing for the HSM - beautiful workmanship like yours suggests that we ALL might want to work a little slower


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