Steady Rest Opinion

[Ray C]

OK, finally the picture came through...

This is a very stout unit that you don't open-up like a traditional one. The only time I used this is with my old lathe and I had a new shaft that wouldn't fit in the spindle and I needed to drill a center hole. Anyhow, it's has coarse and fine adjustments on the rollers and works very well. At worst, you might need to make a new base to fit your lathe -but that is easy.

I'll donate a percentage of anything I sell to this H-M site...

PM if you're interested.


Ray

 

[Bill Gruby]

This is about as heavy duty as you will ever need. I made this one to turn crank shaft journals.




"Billy G"

 

[Metalbender]

Seems a rest is a popular project. I did one a while ago to accommodate larger stock than the factory one. I used replaceable brass blocks. View attachment 69708

 

[LJP]

All very nice! Thanks for the ideas.
Hawkeye I particularly like the cathead design. The project I need it for will be a rectangular piece offset from center.
Are the bearings only used on one side? Do the bearings run in a groove in the cathead?
My idea was to make a cathead, but make the fingers adjustable as well. It could then be used both with or without the cathead.

 

[Hawkeye]

LJP,

Yes, the bearings are only on the near side. I did turn a smooth groove in the outside of the cat-head. If you look at the second photo, you can see adjusting screws for each of the bearing axles. Only slight adjustment, since they are always used with the cat-head sleeve.

Steady rests seem to be a common project, but we don't use them a lot, unless we are doing a bunch of specific types of turning. My big Storebro lathe came with both steady and follow rests, but neither has seen much use in the last 70 years. But when you need one, nothing else will do the job.

 

[kd4gij]

Here is the steady rest I made for my 12" craaftsman lathe. I used small bearings.

 

[NoShopSkills]

I'm in the market to build one of these for my Sheldon 44 too. Someone said "cheaper"? I can't imagine that. If you had kids and skateboards, or inline roller-skates, or roll-aboard luggage with a handle that Southwest Airlines destroyed, you've got freebie bearings. How much cheaper can brass be than free?

 

[docn8as]

FWIW ...tried wood, brass, ball bearings on rifle barrels ball bearinds
burnished and polishing up was the worst
aluminum split collars trued up each time & run n the stdy soved the problem ......allowed recrowning blued barrels w/out damage also
best wishes
doc

 

[pineyfolks]

You can make them reversible then you can flip them and use the bearing or bronze. Depending on what your working on.

 

[mws]

My steady rest has a very hard, maybe carbide, shoe brazed on the fingers. I thought they worked OK until yesterday when a few very fine chips got in there. Tore the hell out of the work, which was destined for turn-down anyway. Had that been near final size I'd have been REAL upset.
I thought bearings might be a good alternative but from what I'm reading, not so much.

I wouldn't think a soft metal like brass or bronze would be good since they embed easily, making them good for lapping, but not open bearing surfaces.

docn8as: I'd like to hear more details on the aluminum collar application. Does each collar conform to the taper of the barrel and then need the OD turned for the steady? How do you get the barrel and collar concentric? Sounds tricky.

Mark