My old Victor did not come with a steady or follower rest. I had been on the hunt for one but for 2 years, have not seen one. I decided to buy a beater on the bay and see what I could do with it. Sometimes, I save too much money. About a year ago a beater showed up. $100 delivered, 6" capacity. When it arrived, I noticed that the center mounting hole was cracked on both sides. Went back to check the pics on the bay and did not see cracks in the pics. All of the other marks were the same so I got the one I was looking at. Set it aside as a reminder that if a deal seems to good to be true, it probably is.
Thought I would take a stab at it this weekend. I was not confident that brazing the cracks would be substantial enough. To go with the cracks, I discovered that the bottom plane was warped or bent, likely from over torquing the center bolt (or an epic fail and this steady saved someones life).
I put the lower half of the rest in the mill vise. After a little finagling, I had it set up in a way that one of the post could be screwed in or out and change the elevation on one side of the rest allowing me to ultimately match measurements off the ends of the rest. Resurfaced it down pretty close to flat.
I squared up a spacer for the bottom out of some mystery steel I had picked up somewhere. To reinforce the cracked area, I added a .500 thick plate to the top and used some 3/8-16 screws to pull it all down tight. You can't see in the pics, but I counterbored the area in the center of the top plate to accept the rise in material around the through hole.
I put a .025 deep nest in the top of the spacer for the rest to sit down in. The through bolt is a 3/4-10 stainless all thread. The bottom clamp plate is 1"x4" cold rolled. I think it will be plenty rigid for my needs.
Still need to make a straight lined knurled knob for the clamp closer but the nut will do for now.
Thought I would take a stab at it this weekend. I was not confident that brazing the cracks would be substantial enough. To go with the cracks, I discovered that the bottom plane was warped or bent, likely from over torquing the center bolt (or an epic fail and this steady saved someones life).
I put the lower half of the rest in the mill vise. After a little finagling, I had it set up in a way that one of the post could be screwed in or out and change the elevation on one side of the rest allowing me to ultimately match measurements off the ends of the rest. Resurfaced it down pretty close to flat.
I squared up a spacer for the bottom out of some mystery steel I had picked up somewhere. To reinforce the cracked area, I added a .500 thick plate to the top and used some 3/8-16 screws to pull it all down tight. You can't see in the pics, but I counterbored the area in the center of the top plate to accept the rise in material around the through hole.
I put a .025 deep nest in the top of the spacer for the rest to sit down in. The through bolt is a 3/4-10 stainless all thread. The bottom clamp plate is 1"x4" cold rolled. I think it will be plenty rigid for my needs.
Still need to make a straight lined knurled knob for the clamp closer but the nut will do for now.
