Mini Lathe Steady Rest

[Pat Watts]

Hello I'm new to this forum and straight to me question. I have a Steel City mini lathe with a 10" sing and extension. When I try to turn spindles I get a lot of chatter and vibration. I know the is due to flexing on the wood when it get thinner. I have seen steady rests to solve this problem but none will fit a 10" swing, only 12" and up. Does anyone know of a steady rest for sale or does anyone have plan for a shop built one? Thanks a lot and I look forward to chatting with all of you.

[Scott Conners]

Pat, here's my version:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=154&pictureid=1527

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=154&pictureid=1526

Please excuse the poor photos, I haven't had a chance to bring my bog camera down to the shop. Hopefully they are clear enough to illustrate how the steady works. It's completely based on a rest made by Steve Schlumpf, so to him goes the credit.
All it is is a square made of 2x3 kiln dried from home depot, and a bit of 1x2 Ipe that I had laying around. I used the Ipe because it is quite stiff and was thinner for the baseplate, as I wanted to use it for hollow forms. If you only need a spindle steady, you dont' have to worry nearly so much about keeping your swing as large as possible. It's glued and screwed together. The arms are made from a 4' T-Track kit from Rockler, they go on sale for $15 or less every few months and have all the parts you need. I drilled holes in the end of the t-track, bolted on some wheels from some rollerblades I got at goodwill, and it works surprisingly well. I wouldn't buy such beat up wheels again, truing them up was difficult, and they still have punctures and stuff that cause a little noise and vibration.

I was going to use a handwheel to tighten it to the ways, but couldn't get it nearly tight enough by hand, and one little crank with a wrench makes it lock on really well. The hold-down toggle it just a piece of steel I bought at Osh in the section with all the right angle and mending plate hardware, about 1/8" thick and 2" long (cut off a longer peice), I used nylon lock nuts to attach it to a peice of allthread and just use a nut on the top to tighten it down. I don't have to slide it on the end of the ways, I can drop it on anywhere. The toggle is long enough that it can't fully rotate under the ways, so tightening is easy.

On small stuff I sometimes just use 3 of the wheels, I need to re-drill the holes where the arms attach, they need to be closer to the corners.

Every time I use it I'm surprised at how well it works, for under $25 in hardware and such, it is a great thing to have!

[Mike Svoma]

Contact Jeff Nicol on this forum. Search his username and send him a PM regarding a steady rest for your lathe. I am sure he will be able to help you.

[Ron Crosby]

Why?
I think Scott did a pretty good post.
Thinking of making one of these myself, now that I see how simple they are.
Thanks, Scott.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Penn state industries has on that works. I have it. I can't get it to come up on the websitre, so I don't know how much it is.
It works, although the bearings are steel, and it will mar your work so you'll have to work with that. It's not as stable looking as the homemade one. (only 3 support bearings) It's certainly NOT as nice as the pics of the home made one either.......

[Pat Watts]

Thanks guys for the replies. I thought about Scotts rest and my fabrication skills blow so I did contact Jeff and he's going in make one for me. Again thanks and I look forward on getting help and ideas with other issues as I just started turning.