Workshop Wednesday: Homemade Steady Rest for Wood Lathe
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- Опубліковано 18 вер 2024
- Workshop Wednesday: Homemade Steady Rest for Wood Lathe
I’ve been meaning to make a steady rest for my wood lathe pretty much since I got the Laguna REVO 1836 but have only just now gotten around to it! I made a different style to start with but wasn’t happy with the ease of use or overall performance so I went back to this plan I found on Alan Stratton of @AsWoodTurns . He actually has three videos on this steady rest, as he’s made a few changes over the years so I’ll link the newest one here:
• Woodturning - My DIY S...
I used some 1-3/4” aluminum tubing I have had forever and some 1/2” Baltic birch plywood. I’ll link to the skate wheels I bought, and I would suggest buying the speed ring washers with the wheels, as they are super cheap. I used 5/16” hex bolts and nylock nuts for the axles, and I was able to find some 5/16” nylon washer/spacers at Menards in the specialty hardware drawers that work fine too. 3/8” carriage boots worked perfectly in the aluminum turning and I had a bunch of knobs and t-nuts and other t-track accessories I used as well. I bought the 1/4” mild steel sheet and other hardware bits from Menards and/or Lowes.
Actually, a steady of that design is/was intended to be used as a bowl steady to dampen vibrations when you have to make the final cuts on a thin-rimmed bowl. It never occurred to me to use it as a traditional spindle steady, but I'm happy to see that it works. Great job on the build!
The book is "Fixtures and Chucks for Woodturners" by . . . ~Doc Green (grin)
Hi Clarence! Yes, that's the book Rick used for the design. I'm going to tweak it some and made the front arm only a single wheel cuz it did turn out to be an issue for me with the top front blocking the laser - went thru the side on a small vase where that wheel is 🙄.
Ms. Lisa, I really like this. Engineering is correct function is nice and very “steady”. I will be building this soon.
Thanks Frank!
Well done Lisa.
Thanks Jack 😁
Excellent work on the build Lisa! Very impressive.
Gary
Thanks Gary! And I did measure the shafts of the Morse taper and the one on the Laguna is a tad shorter than the others. I’m gonna send Laguna an email and ask them about it. When I replaced the lead screw there’s a little oval shaped key in the backside of the quill and I had a hard time getting the screws to go in - like one of the holes was just slightly offset or something. They’ve been really good about taking care of me and I’m in warranty until May so hopefully I can get it squared away. I tend not to use the tailstock to help finish seating the spur drive cuz removing the live center is a process
@@LisaRamlow widest diameter of the Laguna shaft if what I think is important compared to the others.
For sure Laguna will fix the problem. My live center made a clicking noise and they sent a new one right away. I think it was just a burr where the hole goes through.
Good looking steady rest, should work very well, thanks!
Cheers Al
Thank you Al!
Hi Lisa...
I haven't seen one done this way before...
It's a really great design and you made an excellent job of it...
Interesting and enjoyable video as always...
Take care...All the best.....Andy
Thanks Andy!
That looks really nice..
I actually make bagpipes, and have made 2 different steady rests, and also have the native steady rest for my metal lathe.
The steady rest is necessary for many setups when drilling/boring wood for woodwind instruments.
This is a step up.
Thank you.
This is a nice design for sure. I'm going to made a new one with the same design on the rear arm but the front will be rotated or changed slightly so as not to block the laser for my hollowing system. I didn't think that it would be a big deal but I went thru the side of a vase so apparently the laser is important to me 🤣
Good idea, Lisa.
Thanks Brad! Not my design but I like it fine 😁
Really excellent solution, Lisa. I enjoyed listening to your problem solving. 👏
Thank you! I did a lot of looking at steady rest builds and assumed I’d make one of the more standard ring-style until I saw this on on Alan’s channel. After I saw the bar-style I thought that looked super simple (it should have been but wasn’t for me - I struggled with stupid small issues with the all-tubing steady) and since I had all the tubing tried that. Not only did it fight me every step of the way, it just didn’t work well and was really hard to adjust. So I went back to this style and I think it’s gonna be perfect for me 😁
Looks great Lisa
Thanks Doug!
Once again, a great approach that I will put to good use. I'm about a month from retiring and redirecting my energies primarily to my woodworking and writing. Meanwhile, I am learning so much from you (et al) as I consider where to turn next. You truly are a friend I've never met.
Thank you Michael, I really appreciate that. 😊
hello friends greetings healthy and successful always. Thank you for sharing knowledge and always faithfully watching your latest stuff.👍lisa
Thanks!
I like that design. I like skate wheels to be easy on the wood, and I like how the point between the two wheels lines up with work piece center point. I might try this design and add a couple pointers to line up on each side to line up with center line
I have to build another one because I traded this steady rest to a friend of mine for an overhead winch and some bowl blanks. I need to change the design slightly to accommodate the laser pointer from my hollowing system, as the wheels obscure it and I went thru the side of the vase there 🙄
Looks excellent👍😁
Thanks Chris!
Hi Lisa, very well made support you have. Like always i learned some things from the video.
Greetings
Hans Olav
Thanks Hans!
Good evening, Lisa. Well done. Compact and solid. Very adaptive.
Thanks Ray I think it’s gonna be perfect
Great job!! Excellent engineering!!! What can you NOT do!!! Keep up the great work!
Thanks Bruce! Not my design but I was able to adapt it to work on my lathe so that’s good 😁
Well done
Thanks Glenn!
Great design and thanks for sharing. Will some point have to make one myself.
Thanks!
nice piece of kit.
Thanks! 😁
Awesome well done
Thank you Mike!
Yep, you said it "Sweet". I just did a 3/4" x 13" spindle and could have benefited from a steady rest but much smaller than yours. Follow my thinking here ... If the laser beam was replaced with a solid bar you could have a contour follower. Somehow. Anyhoo, great vid, great Work.Wed. !! Take care🙏 -Mike
Hi Mike! I’ll have to check into the contour follower and see what you mean. It would be pretty easy to make a scaled down version. These are 72mm wheels and you can get them as small as like 50mm. I would make the base out of say 1” thick hardwood with a T-track embedded instead of the tubing, which adds a lot of height, and it would serve the same purpose.
@@LisaRamlow All great ideas that you suggest. Mine ? I can see problems or they'd be on the market already !
what a great idea think I will have to have a go at one
I used it yesterday on a vase about 9” long and it worked well. Gonna try it on a bowl and see how that goes too
mornin Lisa ,great job on that rest,hollowing is a chore I have done on canisters,I really don't like that job,have had a few come off and hit the floor,great idea there
Thanks Fran!
Nice rest! Hope to see more Workshop Wednesdays in the future! I love seeing everyone's take on different homemade tools and stuff.
Thanks John, I’m going to try and get some worked in between the project videos 👍
Gonna have to make one of those I like it better than the big circle ones I have seen. Have Jet 1221vs Bench top lathe that looks perfect. Thanks for the video Lisa.
Thanks Jane! I definitely like this design better than the ring ones, and Alan made his using wood for the base in case you can’t find aluminum tubing. Although if you use wood for the base, I would recommend getting a piece of T-track and mounting it flush with whatever base wood you use, and then you can use either t-bolts or hex bolts to slide the arms in and out - pretty cheap and much easier than building a sliding T-track from wood
@@LisaRamlow that's the hubby's job lol he likes making stuff like that. He made his flattening table.
Great design! Thanks for sharing and explaining.
Take care, Dave
Thanks Dave!
Lisa the steady rest is a great thing to have. Your's looks like it will work fine. You did a fantastic job of building it. Should help you out for a good while. Hope you have a great new year and everything goes smoothly for you all year long.
Thank you Joey, hoping for a great 2022 all around! Happy new year!
Very nice design for perhaps smaller diameter pieces. Thanks
Imma try it on some bowls and see how it works. Seems like the same principle as OneWay’s bowl steady
i love it . hope the girls are still doing ok :)
Indeed! We’re in the clear for another trip around the Sun 😁
@@LisaRamlow very good hun
I follow Allen, he can build some jigs alright.
Indeed!
Very nice work Lisa! I have a store bought steady rest that doesn't work any better than yours.
Thanks Jim! The Carter steady was over $400 😳
Lisa,
Very interesting project I was wondering if the laser light would be affected. Not enough to worry about. The center changing will not effect because your wheel carriage will pivot enough to keep things aligned. If you were to move the out board assembly out so that the wheel carriage was pointing up a little. This would move your wheel down so you could see the edge of your hollow form with the laser. It should still hold your turning steady.
Thanks Kevin! I assumed it would work fine I just wasn’t wrapping my brain around it 😂
@@LisaRamlow I am designing a steady rest off of your version. I am going to make a few changes to see if I can resolve the wheel in the way of the laser. I will keep you posted.
I made a classical steady rest but rotated the top wheel set by 30degrees. out of the way of the laser and camera for the hollowing system.
That’s a great idea 👍
nice tool like
Thanks!
Excellent design.
Would adding alignment blocks to the outside edges of the baseplate work to keep the assembly square to the bed ways? (A question, not a suggestion.)
Of the steady rests I have seen, this is the one I prefer. It is a compact, solid, and efficient design that doesn't have long arms sticking out in three or four directions.
Well done!
Thanks for the video. ✔✔
Hi Jerry! I actually have to build another one with a slightly different design as it blocks my laser for the hollowing system. It’ll be the same kinda thing, just rotated a bit. I hadn’t thought about alignment blocks but that would be easy enough to do 👍
Honestly. Do u fix things for your neighbors?? Wow. My question-- does it make pasta??? Great work. Thank You
Thanks Helen! I’ve learned to do a whole lot of things I never thought I’d do 😂
Very sweet LR. Did we ever get a workshop tour????
Not yet but it’s on the list 😉
Hope I'm invited🙂
Lisa, did you say ABEC 9? It’s overkill. ABEC 1 bearings have a limiting speed of 32,000RPM or 38,000RPM with lubrication. A wood lathe’s maximum RPM is roughly a tenth of that. More commonly, for most applications ABEC 3 is used-wood turning included. The extra tolerance of ABEC 9 is not even noticeable on a steady rest, not to mention that any shock loads-the kind you get on a woodturning as you dig in with a gouge-void the perceived benefits. ABEC 7-9 is a tolerance grade for high-speed, high-precision machinery that invariably employ some kind of shock absorber.
That said, it’s a nice build. The purpose of the two pivots is to allow for easy adjustment of varying circumferences; the design is not intended to make use of the entire pivoting range.
I worked for 20+ years in the spare parts department of Swiss and German manufacturers of gear making and inspection machines so I know a bit about bearings. I bought these from a skateboard/rollerblade shop. They were not expensive so I figured higher quality/tolerance is never a bad thing. I'm actually going to rebuild this with a single wheel on the front, offset just under center so it won't interfere with the with the laser from my hollowing system. I traded this one to a friend for an electric overhead lift and a bunch of bowl blanks 😃
@@LisaRamlow Not a bad a bad trade-in, indeed. Just pointing out that one needn’t have any apprehensions about using average bearings for this kind of build. Happy turning, and…er, power hoisting 🙂.
Thanks for sharing Lisa. Looks pretty straight forward. Do you think you can buy the type of rail you used?
Hi Jean! I imagine you can but I think I would just use a piece of T-Track embedded into whatever wood you are using for the base - would do the same the and t-track is super easy to come by, and relatively cheap too. 1/4” and 5/16” hex bolts usually fit nicely in the tracks depending on where you get them. Woodcraft and Rockler both have t-track that would work for this, and then you don’t have to deal with any metal except for the T-track which cuts easily with a hacksaw 👍
It's commonly referred to as "aluminum extrusion" and can be found online.
Looks great! out of curiosity - what's the biggest diameter piece you have done with it? Since it's been a few months since you built it is tehre anything you would change?
Hi Ricc! Welp, I actually traded this to a friend of mine for an overhead lift and some bowl blanks. Turns out the wheels blocking the laser is a problem for me so I’m going to make another one - same design but with three wheels. One of my subscribers sent me a drawing of his modification, which basically has one wheel on the front arm and two on the back, and they are rotated along the center axis so the laser dot is visable. I’ll do an update when I get that far 👍