This summer I was asked to give an estimate on turning ~20 slender railing balusters. I turned one, and it took me two hours. I figured I could make pretty good money at $45 each if I got better with each one... And had it down to an hour apiece at the end.
Here's the baluster. You can see why I needed the steady!
StairBaluster.jpg
I got started getting the materials for the steady rest right away, because my makeshift steady just wasn't going to do... I got the angle ring from McMaster Carr, and the steel from the machine shop across the highway. I even went down to HF and bought one of those recip saws, because my arm was getting tired using a hacksaw...
Turned out I only turned the one baluster since I found a place that could turn them for much less than I could, and the order turned into 75+ balusters anyway. I'd have had to take off work for a couple weeks... Nope. Not doing that. You can read about this in this thread: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...light=baluster
But I continued with the build anyway... I had some old inline skate wheels I'd been saving for just this purpose. And bolts I had in plenty since I scavenge and hoard stuff like that....
So.. off to the races then.
First up is the recip saw after having done it's duty. (A drop-bandsaw would have been ideal, but I just haven't run into a used one at the same time I had money.)
RecipSaw.jpg
And next are the arms cut and drilled.
ArmsCutandDrilled.jpg