Building a Steady Rest for my South Bend lathe

[winkys workshop]

When I look at what's available for replacement steady rest fingers/followers, I find that brass is common, as well as steel rests with bearings. I believe the rule of thumb is you want your solid rests (or at least the tips thereof) to be the sacrificial parts to preserve the surface of your work, and if you can also have that sacrificial material be self lubricating, such as oil impregnated sintered bronze, then all the merrier. I would think graphite bar stock might work as well, but it may be too brittle?

I just check the fingers on my Logan and it appears that they are mild steel. I understand what you are saying about sacrificial materiel but quite often things don't work like you would think. I've seen bronze bushings wear a 1-inch shaft in half. The only reason I was leaning toward harder materiel is that my Logan steady rest has steel fingers and it has always worked exceptional. I suppose they could be some kind of lead alloy steel but from my scratch test it seems it is basically mild steel. When dealing with bearing surfaces a difference in hardness is important not necessarily because you want to sacrifice one component. Wood bearing have been known to cut a 2 inch line shaft in half. I assumed Logan made the fingers with harder steel because the most likely material to be turned in the lathe would all be softer. Ultimately, the steady rest is not clamping the work and the finger materiel is probably not critical. The only moment the bearing surface has pressure is when the cut being made is actually deflecting the stock. Honestly fingers with the same hardest (like the Logan) is the worst possible scenario yet it seems to work fine.