problems with my steady rest now with pics

[curtis rosche]

well, i thought i had finished my steadyrest. its made out of angle iron bolted together to make a 3 sided box. hopefully that makes sense, i cant think of another way to describe it. i went to test it out and the whole frame moves back and forth lengthwise on the lathe. how can i fix this?will welding the whole thing together make it not wobble, or should i go buy some real steel?


the usb port i had my camera plugged into before has gone bad. time to replace it

[Scott Conners]

Curtis, you need to determine where the flex is coming from. If I'm reading your description correctly, it will be in one of three places. The base could be rocking on the lathe, in which case you need a wider base and/or more clamping force. Your joints could be flexing, welding will fix this, leave it bolted up and just weld it together. The metal itself could be flexing, which means you need stiffer material. You might also consider gussets in the corners, that provide stiffness in the plane perpendicular to the lathe bed.

In this case a picture is worth more than a thousand words, show it to us and we'll be able to help much more directly.

[curtis rosche]

i wish i could do a picture. but my computer is acting funny today. it doesnt recognize the camera is plugged in. i will keep trying though.
i beleive that the flex is coming from the short distance between where it is clamped to the lathe and the corner joint

[Chris Barnett]

Please try again with the camera. Might help if you try plugged in and turn camera on, or maybe on, then plug in to computer. Would really like to see your steady rest and how you mount to your lathe.

[Matt Haus]

you vessel is out of balance, perhaps at the chuck and the lease little bit of wobble of the form will translate into the steady. Check your connection there. Most steadies are round and yours is square. I'd weld those corners. Relying on the bolts isn't enough.

[Richard Madison]

Welding and corner braces will help, but the flex is in the bottom corner joints. Looks like the piece under the bed is a straight bar with a weak connection to the upper frame. If that piece were some sturdy angle with very rigid connection to the upper frame it should help a lot.

[curtis rosche]

the bottom bar is 4 peices of angle iron.

[Richard Madison]

Could not see that from the pictures. Looks like just one piece from edge of the bed to corner of the upper frame. In any case, just wiggle the frame by hand and see where the flex is happening.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Curtis I am guessing by what I can see is bolting that thing together is what is causing your flex. I think welding would be a better route to go. Are there just 2 wheels or 3? If there are three I would suggest putting them 120 degrees apart.

[curtis rosche]

there are 3 wheels, the other is blocked by the peice of wood in the picture

[Roger Umber]

It appears from your photos that the bottom piece runs under the lathe bed. Have you considered adding a second "bottom" piece that would across the top of the bed and attached to the vertical pieces. This would made the vertical sides effectively shorter, i.e., less flex, and would add a second box which would make the whole structure more rigid. You could used an angle iron for this piece and a section of the vertical "angle iron leg" could be removed to have more clearance if it is needed.

[Chris Barnett]

Curtis, you say the frame moves lengthwise; I assume you mean longitudinally along the centerline axis of the lathe. The way you have bolted it up seems adequate, although I do not see how you have attached the square frame to the lathe bed.

I do see that you have the wheels attached to the frame only on one side which places a very high torque on the bolt due to side loading from the wheel; this should be a more rigid connection. Perhaps you can add a simple bar across the corner of the frame and drill to accept the end of the bolt on the opposite side of each wheel from the existing connection. Even if you get the lengthwise motion solved, you probably will have issues with wheel assembly motion that can cause loss of the work (read, spinning dangerously into your face).

If you can find a few old clothes dryers, they use solid rubber edged thin wheels that will more easily interface with the work.
Make some comments on how you attach the square frame to the lathe bed, and will try to go from there to help solve your problem.

[curtis rosche]

i am completley redoing the steady rest. i got some square tube steel. 1/8inch thick 1inch by 1 inch square.

this steady rest is attached by a flat peice of steel 3/16 thick that goes over the bed there is a bolt in each end. so there is a bolt on each side of the lathe.