large capacity mini lathe steady rest

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