Using a follower rest

I was concerned that the mystery steel guides might gall the mandrel I was turning. So I cut some copper tubing to fit over the end of the steel guides. Worked but ugly. Is there a preferred material for the guides? Brass, copper, bronze, aluminum, or ??? The guides are 3/8 square.
 
Steel could be brazed up and re machined, but the preferred material has always been cast iron.
 
Sorry, the three pictures are of different states... I modified the jaws to increase clearance and to allow tool access in the jaw plane! I agree, you want the jaws and tool all close to the same plane, and ideally with the tool inside the jaw width. By having the back jaw out of plane with the top and bottom I was able to get a wider adjustment range and simplify construction (two plasma cut plates stacked and welded).
I agree that the bottom jaw might not be needed. It was easy to design in, and I can always leave it down. I just haven't used it enough to decide yet ;-)

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To avoid galling you want different materials, alloys, and/or hardness. Carburized jaws would be safe from galling for almost anything you might turn.
Damaging the work is another question... brass is good for that aspect. Dont use rollers on a steady unless you have perfect chip clearing! That lesson was painfully won :-(

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I checked a couple of metal supplier websites for cast iron and found that they only sell 8" to 12" square by 1" thick or bigger pieces of cast iron. I'll have to keep my eye out for some scrap cast iron. I will try the guides without the copper to see how they affect a piece of steel.

Thanks for the suggestions
 
Janderso said:
The steady that is made for my 15X50 mounts to the headstock side of the cross slide. Would this be a better configuration? It seems like it would.
Is your steady made for the lathe?
I can see your dilemma.
Someone that knows something will be along.
We don't see much on this subject.
Click to expand...
 
I made a tool that mounts to the spindle side of carriage and it acts like a steady but it is in front of the cutting tool by about 1/2 inch. It has 3 rollers but as it is ahead of tool chips don’t seem to bother it. Google (not a follow rest ) if you want to see it.

Also a guy named Frank Ford made a neat follow rest that works on a qctp. Google (Frank Ford follow rest.)

JimSehr
 
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