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Thread: Wood Lathe Steady Rest designs, etc.?

  1. #1

    Wood Lathe Steady Rest designs, etc.?

    I built a steady rest in the fairly common design using a 3/4" plywood circle with 3 tabs holding skateboard wheels at the end. It works fine but it requires me to remove my 4' long steady rest used for turning back posts for rocking chairs. The spindle/workpiece of course is easier as it inserts into the center OK. In looking at the PSI steady rest design and reading reviews on Amazon I see several high level/pro turners who say it works great. I dislike the Oneway and a few other designs sold for cost and design as it will not improve me past the one I already made. I have a Delta steady rest casting that lacks the tabs & wheels. That design style requires much smaller wheels which I feel will give less vibration control due to small diameter plus lacking some resiliency as a skateboard wheel offers. My large rocker has a 45" post so a ~48" spindle workpiece creates quite a bit of whip and vibration.
    Please share your thoughts & Thanks!!!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
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    Lummi Island, WA
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    665
    Michael - can you give us an idea of the lathe you’ll be using it on - the swing. This seems to be for a midi lathe at best and I think that may be beyond the length requirements you need. The design looks similar to the bowl steady Oneway makes; it does look like a good design for spindles though...

  3. #3
    Sprunger lathe. They were once an Indiana mfg of wood working machinery-good stuff. Lathe has 16 swing at headstock but 8" from centers to bed top. The PSI version will, in fact, fit my lathe, no matter that mine has a long bed via the extension. Length matters not for the steady rest, it must fit the bed itself, as in clamp to the bed rails, which that one will do.
    I'm thinking I might look at using my old skateboard wheels and fab one up. FWIW, ebay Chinese sellers have plenty of these wheels on the cheap, no need to buy an old skate board as I've seen in comments here.

  4. #4
    I found a steady rest design that will utilize the wheels I already have and keep it's width withing the lathe bed rail width and not interfere with my 4' tool rest made from angle iron. It also has an easy adjustment and workpiece removal. It's sold on ebay by seller "sharshooterbilliards-com" if you want to see their design.
    It consists of two upright, extruded aluminum, slotted tracks, set vertical with a lower crossbar holding two wheels and the upper crossbar holding one wheels.Both uprights are double fastenred to an alu angle piece that clamps the bed rails. Thewheels adjust up and down converging on the workpiece. To be rigid, I feel both uprights best be welded , not simply screwed together as their version, but I'll try it screwed first as I lack an alu welder for todays version.
    Places like Rockler sell lots of alu slotted track.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2015
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    San Diego, Ca
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    1,647
    Michael, thanks for the reference to the seller. The link didn't seem to work, but on ebay I entered (with an added "p") sharpshooterbilliards and found the seller. Interesting and quite an inexpensive device. If you get it and find that the screws don't provide enough rigidity, you could always screw on some reinforcing gussets. Because it is fairly small, it may be rigid enough.

    Their design looks fine for thin things like spindles, tool handles, billiard cues, finials, etc. But it may be a bit "underpowered" to use for larger/heavier things. One of the reasons is the pair of lower wheels are close together, so on larger items the primary support would be from essentially two points: top and bottom.

    I built a C-shaped steady rest for a smaller lathe out of metal tubing that I welded. For the wheels, I bought them on-line for something like twelve or fifteen bucks for 10 including the bearings. When I use it, I wrap a turn of blue painters tape on the wood to keep the wheel from burnishing the wood. Works good.

    There seems to be two schools of thought in terms of making a steady for the max capacity of the lathe versus making it for the size turning that you will probably do. Making them as large as the lathe can accept can make them a bit wobbly unless the support arms are made correspondingly stout. I suspect that most people rarely, if ever, use a steady at the max capacity of the lathe. I adapted my little metal steady (~10" capacity) when I got a larger (22" throw) lathe by mounting it on a platform. I thought that I would build a new and bigger one when the need came up. So far it hasn't.

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    FWIW, that IS! the sellers ebay name, (as I stated above) not a website address. As to the lower wheel arrangement- I'm not buying their steady rest, but I am (sort of) doing the same idea, thus my lower pair of wheels will be spaced for my use not pool cues. The one item I turn long is the back post on the Appalachian chairs I build. I usually cut a 2x2x48" and use the ends to make my rocker tenon and top for the finial or shift it towards one end if a defect shows up.
    My wheels came from ebay Chinese sellers and are high quality wheels with some softness, not much. They were very inexpensive. You can press a fingernail into them such as to barely feel them give. My current use has been an Osage orange chair so little chance of buggering the wood, to say the least!!!
    I rough turn a very small section mid ways then sand it with 60 grit directly after the spindle gouge and install the rest at that time. Once the other parts of the spindle are trued the rest can be moved over slightly to a spot further smoothed and left until done. I saw zero effect on the wood from my wheels.
    Today I picked up an alu angle to make my base, cost $1 @ Metals Depot. T-slot track I'm buying on Amazon and using 1 1/2" wide . I have a buddy who can weld it for me. My cross pieces I'll play with to accommodate approximate 2" dia spindle or less for tenons. I may have to slot the wheels on the lower cross arm. The top will remain centered. On my plywood circle rest I placed one wheel below and other two at radial angles above. It works fine but any circle rest sticks out where my 4' tool rests is located, not an issue with front posts or turning small chair rung spindles.
    I don't do much with bowls on the lathe, maybe having both hands CTS surgery 20 years ago after lots of bowls is a factor?

  7. #7
    I found a great aluminum T-slot source online.
    www.alufab.com is a Cinn., OH supplier who sells small pieces by the inch with reasonable shipping. Ends up cheaper than buying a whatever pre-cut length on Amazon from Peachtree or other sellers there.
    In reading the Brice Rogers reply above again, here's my further thoughts-
    I see no reason two wheels together fail to support a typical spindle? Oneway uses one wheel below and two above and my self built plywood circle uses either "3 in a triangle" or two above and one straight underneath-those all serve the purpose of lowering vibration enough to eliminate chatter.
    Wheel spacing is easily moved via slots but in the end I may just do the best position for my own spindle sizes.
    The wheels I am using are identical to those used by Oneway and common rollerblade wheels. As I said earlier, mine have rainbow LED's that light up when revolving so it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood when I'm turning!

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