Steady rest for light turning

[Philip Davies]

Many of our most prominent contributors have published their steady rests. There are at least two others who, like me, have used plywood, which is much easier for me to process.

This design is adapted from Rosario Capotosto’s book, “200 Original Shop Aids & Jigs for Woodworkers.


It’s all made from reclaimed materials. The plywood came from a cabinet drop flap, the fingers are beech slats from a cot, the guides are alloy taken from a lazytongs riveter. Even the bolts, ball bearings, etc were scavenged from somewhere.
Here are some of the components:


Another view:

[Altair]

Thanks Philip Davies! We've added your Steady Rest to our Lathe Accessories category,
as well as to your builder page: Philip Davies's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Steady Rest by Philip Davies

tags: steady rest

[Beserkleyboy]

Well done Philip! I'm an old plywood man myself; it finds its way into every jig..and the satisfaction of using 'well found and kept' pieces is always a joy..."I knew that would come in handy..." Cheers
Jim

[DIYSwede]

Thank you, Philip! Nice build, and thanks for sharing.

Personally, I most often find myself choosing "eclectic or heretic" materials in my one-off builds at work (props for set and stage):
"Cheap, quick and good enuff for Government work": using junk, scraps, cutoffs from just about anything already lying around.
Mostly due to the short lead-times in my prototyping, I can't even afford a few days waiting for delivery of (also expensive) materials.
Guess I would qualify for the Dumpster Diving World Finals...

And then in dire need of the fast and easy process of forming wood (plastics, etc) relative to metal, and also the fact that
the operative prototypes usually has to do their job for only a few weeks' shows or shoots, I don't wanna over-engineer the stuff.
We never, ever get into "series production" - more than just a dozen of anything gets outsourced.
"Winging and Kludging" is quick, dirty, cheap and mostly operational enuff.

To be honest - it's only during the last two years I've been able to make "all metal", real, precision gadgets,
and then mostly for shop tools - either at work or for my "Walk-in closet workshop" at home.

ATB
Johan