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Help Identifying Steady Rests

Scottneh

Plastic
Joined
Mar 19, 2017
20191208_101946.jpg20191208_101950.jpg20191208_102106.jpg20191208_102117.jpgHi All,

I have a pair of steady rests that I bought at auction thinking they would fit my late. I have a 1985 15 x 54 LeBlond Makino and these two steady rests do not fit. I's like to identify brand to sell or trade for the right steady rests. They are both 15" centers and one might be a Monarch. Any help is appreciated.
 
Right now I'm using the Oneway. I'm waiting for someone to make them from Carbon Fiber then I'll probably buy another round one.
And I think PM 3520 is also suitable.
 
We need a steady rest library, with pics and dimensions.
Identifying a mystery steady rest or finding a missing steady rest is a daunting and usually unfruitful task.
 
Easier to make the unknown steady fit the lathe you have than to hope to find the exact part.
Not a complex fix.....Make a sub plate that fits your lathe bed from steel of the correct width (same as steady)

Mill the base of your steady flat. Cut enough to add the sub plate and have the steady at the correct height fro your lathe...
Secure the plate to the modified steady with shcs...Problem solved.
Cheers Ross
 
My first thought is Colchester Clausing, but they changed their castings every decade or so. If you post dimensions of the base (overall length and width is 90% of it), I could compare it to the ways on our 1960's Colchester 15x48.
 
Nothing like a 60s Colchester.......however the suggestion they be modified to fit the OP s lathe is good..........there is plenty of meat in the base for alteration,simple job IMHO.
 
Easier to make the unknown steady fit the lathe you have than to hope to find the exact part.
Not a complex fix.....Make a sub plate that fits your lathe bed from steel of the correct width (same as steady)

Mill the base of your steady flat. Cut enough to add the sub plate and have the steady at the correct height fro your lathe...
Secure the plate to the modified steady with shcs...Problem solved.
Cheers Ross

That is what I had to do 30 years ago (before Ebay) to get a steady for my lathe.

On the other hand you may be hacking on rare and desirable $$$ steady.
 
When I was scrapping stuff bigtime,I always saved steadies ,gap pieces ,compound slides,tailstocks etc.....then periodically they would all go into the scrap...because for some reason machinist are hopeless at making anything for their own machines,even when its only a minor mod....but its not original ,they cry,I want original.
 
...because for some reason machinist are hopeless at making anything for their own machines,even when its only a minor mod..

Yes I have noticed that many machinists won't make the required tool to adjust or maintain their machines, instead they grab the hammer and punch. #@%&*!!
 
We need a steady rest library, with pics and dimensions.
Identifying a mystery steady rest or finding a missing steady rest is a daunting and usually unfruitful task.

You know, this community could make a go of it. We collectively have the data to make a searchable library.

While there are lots of lathes around, there are far fewer manufacturers, and they tend to have a few families that have similar dimensions.

There are three easily-measured critical dimensions that will serve to immediately eliminate the unlikely, yielding a reasonable number of candidates. The three are the spacing between bedway pad centers, the distance between the flat bedway plane to the spindle rotation centerline, and the Vee included angle (180 degrees if flat). If one bedway pad has a Vee groove, use the center of the Vee.

Many Vee grooves have a 90 degree included angle, and this can be verified with a combination square or the like. Clausing uses 70 degrees. I think Colchester also uses 70 degrees, or did. I've heard that Harrison used 70 or 75 degrees. And so on.

It's easy to measure the included angle of a Vee groove, using some drill blanks and a dial indicator - one measures how deep in the groove the two drill blanks rest as a function drill blank diameter, yielding the rise over run ratio, which will be the tangent of the included angle.

Math: Treat each measurement point {lathe make and model; width, height, angle} as a point in 3D space. When an unknown steady appears, take its measurements and compute the distance from the new guy to all the old guys currently in the database. Sort by distance, report the closest five or ten candidates, and just how close they are. With luck there will be a big gap between number one and number two, and number one will be the clear winner.
 
We need a volunteer to set it up and get Admin to make it a sticky or whatever.

I would do it but am not computer savvy, and struggle just posting a pic.
 
We need a volunteer to set it up and get Admin to make it a sticky or whatever.

I would do it but am not computer savvy, and struggle just posting a pic.

I am willing to do build the database and search function. All I need is the above described data" "measurement point {lathe make and model; width, height, angle}".

The easiest approach is for people to measure the steadies they possess and post the details in this thread, where I can extract the data into a growing database. Probably worthwhile to give the dimensions of the smallest box that will contain the assembled steady's cast iron from the bedway up (exclude clamp plate hardware below bed and all protruding screws et al), as this information is often noted on ebay.

If the make and model is unknown, say so, plus any hunches or suspicions, and I'll try it against the growing database and post the result.
 
I am willing to do build the database and search function. All I need is the above described data" "measurement point {lathe make and model; width, height, angle}".

The easiest approach is for people to measure the steadies they possess and post the details in this thread, where I can extract the data into a growing database. Probably worthwhile to give the dimensions of the smallest box that will contain the assembled steady's cast iron from the bedway up (exclude clamp plate hardware below bed and all protruding screws et al), as this information is often noted on ebay.

If the make and model is unknown, say so, plus any hunches or suspicions, and I'll try it against the growing database and post the result.

May I suggest you post a pic or drawing of the info you require, so everyone is on the same page.
So for example dimension 'A' is always the width of the flat way.

Then a required input would be standardized.
 
When I was scrapping stuff bigtime,I always saved steadies ,gap pieces ,compound slides,tailstocks etc.....then periodically they would all go into the scrap...because for some reason machinist are hopeless at making anything for their own machines,even when its only a minor mod....but its not original ,they cry,I want original.

That's me!
 
Also good to note if you are measuring height from the flat way, V-way, center, etc.

May I suggest you post a pic or drawing of the info you require, so everyone is on the same page.
So for example dimension 'A' is always the width of the flat way.

Then a required input would be standardized.

I agree to both suggestions. It'll be a few days.

The workflow is to collect raw data in a growing MS Excel spreadsheet and to publish this spreadsheet periodically in the present thread.

I'll write a program that will pull data out of the spreadsheet and do the math. Unless I can see a reasonable way to do this in Excel.

Joe
 








 
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