Steady rest base machining

robbin · Mar 8, 2017

I have a steady rest not made for my machine. It isn't centered. Do I

1) make a plate for the lathe and bolt the steady rest to it

or

2) machine the bottom moving the groove towards the center and shortening the flat side to bring the center of the steady rest to the center of the ways?

I could always fail at #2 and go for #1.

Richard King · Mar 8, 2017

How about some photo's if the lathe bed and steady. Its hard to figure out what your saying as we don't have crystal balls.

Alex McGilton · Mar 8, 2017

How far off center are we talking about? The adjustable fingers are independent I presume as most are. Can it function as normal for all but the thinnest of parts? You could potentially saw off the legs just above the bed clamp then braze them a fraction of an inch to the side, or mill out the under side of the clamping surface and fill the void with a metal interpreted epoxy and let it cure while clamped. Just a word of cation, the machine that it was indented for will likely have deterrent V and flat profile So you may need to mill, file and scrape the under side for consistent contact and not to contort the bed when tightened.

svs · Mar 11, 2017

robbin said:
I could always fail at #2 and go for #1.

I've done several-#2 has never worked out for lack of meat once steady was shifted....So barring a miracle plan on #1

Here is my most recent effort.

In this case I used a pair of sliding toe clamps to allow steady to drop in/clamp down.

Scott

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

aribert · Mar 29, 2017

If your steadyrest is intended for a lathe with slightly larger swing than the one you intend to put it on, frequently there will be enough stock at the bottom of the oversize steady to proceed w/ proposal 2 (cutting the lathe bed features into the steady). I did so w/ a mystery steady that looked like it was intended for about a 14 inch swing lathe for my Clausing 5914 (12 inch swing). A minor downside is that the steadyrest most likely will be a bit heavier than one intended for the lathe.

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Steady rest base machining

robbin

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Richard King

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Alex McGilton

Cast Iron

svs

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aribert

Cast Iron

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