Home made steady

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liveaboard
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Home made steady

Post by liveaboard »

Ok, it's not pretty...
I have a job that just really needs a steady rest, so after 10 years of doing without, I finally put in a few hours and made one.
There are NO parts of any kind for my lathe; it's an orphan.
home made steady rest for Valenda.jpg
I haven't used it yet.
choprboy
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Re: Home made steady

Post by choprboy »

Looks good... Next job, chop the top half off, weld a hinge on the back joint and a bolt/nut on the front joint to reattach it. Now you can remove/swap work without moving the steady rest on the lathe or repositioning the rollers.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Home made steady

Post by SteveHGraham »

Really nice.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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Harold_V
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Re: Home made steady

Post by Harold_V »

Nice, indeed, but I highly recommend the alteration suggested by choprboy. Makes the steady a lot more versatile.

H
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liveaboard
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Re: Home made steady

Post by liveaboard »

Thanks guys;
I know the factory made ones have the opening, but for now I'll keep it as it is.
I don't want to compromise the rigidity. The factory ones I've seen are made from much thicker section.

My material choice was carefully considered after scrutinizing my scrap pile...
rrnut-2
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Re: Home made steady

Post by rrnut-2 »

Looks nice! I was going to buy one for my 13" Clausing Colchester, but at $2400 its not going to happen. I may build one now.

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Re: Home made steady

Post by RSG »

Looks great!
Vision is not seeing things as they are, but as they will be.
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liveaboard
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Re: Home made steady

Post by liveaboard »

First use today; it's finicky to get it adjusted right, and when the work heats up it gets too tight. But it works ok, I'm boring to fit bearings.
I have to make a wrench to get at the nuts, and it would be handy to have flats cut into the ends of the threaded rods so they can be held / adjusted while tightening the nuts.
Those are 18mm [about 3/4"] rods.
zelenda UZ4 lathe.jpg
Googling the lathe today, I found a set of pictures from Czech republic of the same model but in pristine condition. And there is no image of a steady rest. Maybe they shipped without them.
And the one in Czech rep. has inch denominated dials; that surprises me. Inches in Europe??
spro
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Re: Home made steady

Post by spro »

Yeah, stuff like that makes makes one wonder. I was wondering how your wrench went but figured you already did it or modified the steady in some ways. I had thought about modifying a 12pt box end wrench by grinding out the end to let it pass around the threads. It looked like the channel taper would keep it from spreading.
Your steady looks solid enough and I'm impressed with it. Still, the threaded arms could use a key slot and the housing, inset keys.
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liveaboard
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Re: Home made steady

Post by liveaboard »

Very true, but I have no machine to make keyslots.
Also, I rarely need the steady; so time spent with the finicky adjustments has to be weighed against time spent working on the tool. If I spend 10 hours improving it, will it save me 10 hours?
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