Victor steady rest needed

[Vance Nickerson]

I need a steady rest for a victor 16x60 anybody have a spare 16'' steady rest around?

[liveaboard]

I need one for my lathe too; I'm going to have to make it myself as there's no hope of parts for mine.
I'll use little ball bearing units on the finger ends.

[Harold_V]

I'll use little ball bearing units on the finger ends.

They can be an improvement, but they also offer a problem that must be overcome.
When friction type jaw ends are in use, chips don't normally get in. With roller bearings, that may not be true. If one lands on the part, in line with a bearing, it will be indented in to the part.

I'm not suggesting that rollers are a bad idea---but if you make the choice to use them, give serious thought to making some kind of deflector, to keep chips away.

Harold

[liveaboard]

I hadn't thought of that.
Actually I've been using one with ball bearing fingers that I made when I first got the lathe, but I was in a hurry and made it so badly that it's not very useful.
The fingers are ok but I need a much more robust frame. Also the current one clamps to the outer edges of the bed, and interferes with the carriage sooner than if it clamped to the inner like the headstock.

[SteveM]

Not sure if your bed would be close enough to a 16" south bend, but you could get the base for a south bend from Tools 4 Cheap fopr $10 and find another steady to adapt to it:
http://www.tools4cheap.net/products.php?cat=7


If you are going to do that, hurry - Tools 4 Cheap is closing.

Steve

[f350ca]

I agree with Harold, you have to consider cuttings getting around the rollers. The steady rest for my 16 inch Summit probably weighs a hundred pounds, it goes on with the crane so Im guessing a bit. Wondered at the chinsy plastic knob they had on the stud to hold the top closed. One day a heavy cutting worked its way back to the rollers and tried to go under one, that plastic knob exploded and let the steady open up. Guess it was a safety valve of sorts, not sure what would have happened if it couldn't open.

Greg

[liveaboard]

Tools4 cheap is closing??
I got him to mail some things all the way to Portugal for me in the past. I thought I'd pop in there next time I'm in Boston. Oh well.

My inner bed does rather look like that; I'll measure it tomorrow but I suspect that one is too big for me.
Also, the shipping cost is likely to take all the fun out of it.

Greg, I think your work is a few notches more intense than mine!