80" dowels and a new steady

[Paul Atkins]

I had to make a few 'dowels' or rods 80" long and 1 1/8" diameter. Hmm. My steady rest is the delta one with metal rubbing surfaces which would not work for this I figured. I dug out my roller blade wheels and fashioned an aluminum track for each and had a roller steady. I'd have to say that rubber is tough and had to use a razor sharp tool to get them even. This worked very well, so I'll have to make another with bigger capacity as this will only go to 3". 'Shoulda' done this years ago. Now the question was how to get an octagonal piece to roll in this. The first one was very straight so I babied it very slowly and got a round area for the steady, but this didn't work on the rest of them, since they were flexing all over. I got an idea from somewhere out in space and pressed on a piece of PVC pipe that happened to be the right size and all was good. The wood was Liptus - pretty stable in this case but soft. (They all came out within 6 thousandths over the 80")

[Matt Hutchinson]

Hey, nice one Paul!

So from the pictures it looks like you didn't use a pattern maker's tool holder. Awesome precision manual work!

Hutch

P.S. Wait, what's that I see at the left of the second picture?

[John Keeton]

(They all came out within 6 thousandths over the 80"):eek::eek::eek: Paul, I can't do that in 8", much less 80"!!!

Neat setup with the adapted steady and PVC.

[Paul Atkins]

I tried with the carriage and it was pretty grabby, so I sized them by hand and used my 60 1/2 plane with a Hock blade sharpened nicely and skimmed off any bumps till I got to the size I needed while the lathe was at its' slowest. smoother than220 grit, but I sanded them all just for uniformity.

[Norm Zax]

Paul, why did you need the wheels to be uniform? After all, you move them in to touch the surface so they can all be different. And to go on, how did you stabilize them in order to turn them equal? Didnt the bearings counter the turn?

[Jeff Nicol]

Paul, As you know I make the big ones but have always thought that some day I would make one in the style of the one you used for the job you completed. One can never have to many jigs, tool rests and things that ease the process on the lathe. So far I have not needed to turn long cylinders or dowls but some day!

Great job,

Jeff

[Paul Atkins]

Norm, I wanted the wheels a bit smaller to get a larger capacity and they were worn unevenly from previous use. I pulled the bearings out and made a mandrel that fit the recess and a cone for the tailstock. I tried the metal lathe, but the wood lathe worked better mostly because of the tool grind. Thanks, Jeff, John, Matt.