Lather steady rest missing parts

Bronze, rectangular, radiused on the ends a little if you want, but it's not necessary. Only the smallest line on the face will actually contact the work during adjustment, and gets backed off enough not to bind.

LLoyd

Bronze is the usual material, but you could make up some with small ball bearing races on the tips, then the material doesn't matter, could use cold-rolled or key stock. I made one up for the South Bend many years back that way, worked fine for working down some hydraulic cylinder stock. If you do go the bronze route, you will need some lubrication on the area where the tips rub on the workpiece. Either will leave some marks, don't use it on a finished surface where appearance counts.

Here's a picture of one for a much smaller lathe:

Same with ball bearings: Give you the idea, anyway. Larger ones usually have a split and hinged ring to more easily accomodate mounting the workpiece. If you go the bearing route, make sure your bearings are all in the same plane and square on. Can lead to some interesting times otherwise.

Stan

Thanks for the links, pictures and comments.

Helped a lot!!

Ivan Vegvary

Ivan

You may not be missing any parts. On the steady rest that came with my

12" Craftsman, the ends of the bolts are the fingers. Try running the bolts all the way in. If they touch in the middle, that's the answer.

Makes a fairly poor steady rest, though, and I'd recommend you get something better. Since I mostly make wind instruments and a nonmarring steady is very useful, I made a new one with urethane roller blade wheels on the ends. Works great, but probably isn't stiff enough for metal use (if I can hold .01" tolerance in wood I'm doing really well - it's a bit like turning rubber at those dimensions).

Jim