Actual metal content

I made a ball bearing one for water well pipe, works good for this irregular material. For everything else, I like the brass unit better. Just my 2 cents

Karl

The bearing rollers do not require coolant of lubricant while the brass ones should have coolant or lubricant on them. I made a set out of Ultem 1000 that I had left over from another job and they worked better than the brass.;

John

Blonde 13" lathe). =EF=BF=BDOne of

The ones with roller bearings can cause irregularities when a chip goes through the roller. Engineman

I think that actually bronze, not brass, would be the better contact point material.

Ball bearings can have benefits, but if chips get in that area, they will be rolled into the workpiece, thus marring the finish and causing it to run off center.

If you can clean the workpiece, and set up shields to keep chips out of that area, the ball bearings can be better for heavy cuts.

For something like cutting Acme threads on a long shaft, you want a traveling steady, not a fixed one, and there you would want bronze contact points broad enough to bridge a couple of adjacent thread crests.

The exception to the bronze points would be if you are cutting Acme threads in a bronze shaft, in which case you want some other material so you don't get galling.

Enjoy, DoN.

Greetings Ivan, I used to do a lot of really precise steady rest work. Ball bearing rollers are best for crappy work. Like steel with mill scale on it. When doing precision work the rollers have a couple major disadvantages. One is the hazard of getting a chip between a roller and the work. This will leave at least one dent, and possible three dents, in the work. The other major drawback of rollers is the tendency to roll the work to a smaller diameter so then the clearance increases and the work rattles in the steady. So for the best result use bronze pads and install an oiler on the steady rest. I use a drip oiler, the type with a sight glass to see the drips. I drilled and tapped the steady rest for 1/4 pipe to fit the oiler and drilled through 1/8". I use a bent piece of piano wire forced in the 1/8 hole to direct the oil right onto the part and right next to the bronze pad. The pads will wear a little to the work when you first spin the work. So adjust them and then as long as you have oil dripping on the work at the pads the work will be suspended by the oil and the work will run very true. Another advantage of the oil drip is the ability to spin the work very fast without too much heat build up. This prevents the work from seizing in the steady rest. Cheers, ERS