Thread: Oversize EE Steady Rest

Getting a few parts made for the steady!

[IMG]IMG_1380 by crh2765, on Flickr[/IMG]


[IMG]IMG_1381 by crh2765, on Flickr[/IMG]

Thanks for sharing your progress.
I enjoy the quality of your work.
Does this rest have a cam lock clamp system?

Halfway

Yes, cam lock like the originals.
Making the little cam(shaft?) was fun, since I had never turned one with anything close to accuracy. Just eyeballed art crap.

The most intimidating is machining the casting. It is very nice how square the casting already is, though.

I say intimidating ‘cuz it’s a first. Going slow and paranoid! I’ve established flats on the base, and hope to go from there.

I am hoping, for peace of mind, that a steady rest doesn’t need to be machined to exact tolerances. Surely not super critical, given they are something you adjust!?

I took a slightly different tack- I was concerned with three things:
-The opening of the steady be centered on the chuck
-The fingers meet at close to the center the steady rest
-The hinge provide good alignment across the hinge line

One of the fingers is on the opposite side of the hinge from the
other two. This provides the opportunity for things to get wonky
if the reference is not consistent.

You want the hinge bolt to be located in the same way in relation to
both castings. Using the center of the through hole provides this
common reference.

Like you, I machined a flat reference on the bottom of the steady
rest as a first step. I purposefully left extra material on the
bottom surface when I did this. I used this flat surface for
alignment, but the positional reference I used was the center of the
through hole. Setting this as zero I re-machined the bottom and
the hinge landing ect ect. At this point you have multiple references
that can be used for further machining.

Thank you. Glad you shared this info before I did any more!

I believe I noted, when I sent out updated drawings, that the castings are slightly different in size (and geometry) than the CAD/ drawings due to differences in estimated vs. actual shrinkage.

If any of you took pics of your setups I'd love to see them.

I didn't take a lot, and I'm not sure how useful they will be...

The castings are machining nicely. I basically never machine cast iron, so this is good exposure.

[IMG]IMG_0012 by crh2765, on Flickr[/IMG]

Email sent about getting a set.

Originally Posted by TheOldCar

The castings are machining nicely. I basically never machine cast iron, so this is good exposure.

[IMG]IMG_0012 by crh2765, on Flickr[/IMG]

I've never seen an old car that didn't have cast iron that needed machining

Done! Plenty of mistakes, but done.. It will be interesting to see how far off-of-centerline it is.

I had no interest in doing prep other than filing down sharp edges. No filler, no primer, just leftover rattle can engine paint.

[IMG]IMG_0049 by crh2765, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]IMG_0050 by crh2765, on Flickr[/IMG]

My 7 year old is cranking the knobs.

[IMG]IMG_0041 by crh2765, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]IMG_0047 by crh2765, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]IMG_0042 by crh2765, on Flickr[/IMG]

You did a great job on that rest.
Looks good enough to take to the fair.

Hal

Looks are deceiving!
Mistakes include boring the bottom hinge bolt hole .090 below centerline!

After that, I consistently became worse, not better, at aligning cast iron on the mill table.

Best accuracy I achieved was following scribed lines!

I just machined up some rough castings and the only procedure I could use was "eyeball metrology" .

Originally Posted by daryl bane

I just machined up some rough castings and the only procedure I could use was "eyeball metrology" .

Validation!

Originally Posted by daryl bane

I just machined up some rough castings and the only procedure I could use was "eyeball metrology" .

Looking at your casting and understanding not having an initial starting referance point to work from.

Look at my factory monarch steady rest and picture where the guys at monarch started machining.
I would think milling the base flat.
They must have had jigs set up.

A steady rest is just a part support and looks aren't important . Here is my steady rest. I did not grind on it.


A little rough around the edges. Look at the grinding where the latch bolt goes.
It is tight and machined mating surfaces are nice. It's Just ugly in comparison.

Old car
Yours is a work of art! And admitting that .090 error is impressive. You strive for perfection and It shows in your work.

Giving a lot of credit to Sneebot for his castings

Originally Posted by mllud22

I would think milling the base flat.
They must have had jigs set up.

To make them economically you'd have to set up fixturing. The Monarch units have very good alignment across the hinge line and the center of the bore closely matches the centerline of the spindle.

I had never machined castings before and found the lack of definite references irritating. I tried to machine as much as possible in each set-up so that there was less chance of errors accumulating.

Sneebot’s castings had zero pits, zero voids and the overall flatness of the face (the large flat area) made ALL the difference in my opinion. I didn’t have to shim when clamped with the large flat laying down on the mill table. Made the initial reference flats with it clamped that way, as well as all other steps that required machining the opposite side.