Steady rest

In the precedent post, I showed my long boring D bits in use together whith a steady rest. Here it is .

I have two sizes of steady rest, here is the bigger, made out of metal. The other, which I will show another time, has a wooden frame.

http://www.labellenote.fr/file/homem..._lunette_2.JPG

It is made with corner profiles for the two mobile bars, and with square section profiles for the base and top bars. It is hold together with two big 14 or 16? mm (I don't remember) threaded rods on each side.
The wheels are roler blade wheels, bolted to the corner profiles.
The frame is bolted to the bed of the lathe thanks to the two wooden pieces you can see at the bottom.


First of all, you need to true up the wood piece using the live center. You need to turn a neat track for the wheels.

http://www.labellenote.fr/file/homem..._lunette_3.JPG

Then you want to make the wheels touch the wood. So you tighten up or down the bolts in order to get an even pressure on the wood in all directions. The wheels are made out of soft rubber, so it's not easy to keep a good centering. You need to chek that you keep the center using the live center point as a reference.

http://www.labellenote.fr/file/homem..._lunette_1.JPG


And here we go ! you can work at the end of the piece, even if it's quite long.


http://www.labellenote.fr/file/homem..._lunette_4.JPG

If I had to redo it, I would try to find wheels with harder tires.

I forgot to say that the bar with the two wheels has several holes in order to space more or less the wheels, depending on the workpiece diameter.

Thanks Christophe! I've added your Steady Rest to our Wood Lathes category, as well as to your builder page: Christophe Mineau's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="/steady-rest-18"><img src="/uploads/103457/steady-rest-18.jpeg" alt="Steady Rest" /></a> </div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="/steady-rest-18">Steady Rest</a> <span> by <a href="/builder/Christophe+Mineau">Christophe Mineau</a></span> </div> <div class="tags"> tags: <a href="/tag/lathe">lathe</a>, <a href="/tag/wheel">wheel</a>, <a href="/tag/steady-rest">steady rest</a> </div> </div> </div> </div>

WoW what a steady rest. Nice looking Wood lathe as well, common Christophe you only got a few more to get. :O)

Perfect my friend! congratulations :clapping:

Most bodacious, dude, as they say :bow:

Doc

Just like your other tools, Christophe, this one shows off your creativity.