Need to find or build a steady rest

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I have a 12" Logan 2537 turret lathe. I don't have a steady rest for it, and I have a need for one. I have found expensive examples on Ebay, and honestly don't want to pay that much if I can help it. My thought is to find one from another lathe that would fit, or make my own.

So, 2 questions;
1.) what other brands of steady rests will fit on a Logan 12"?
2.) what options do I have for building one from scratch? Does it have to be steel? Is aluminum Ok? Maybe a silly question, what about making one out of wood?

Basically I'm looking for ideas.
 
Wood turners often make steady rests out of wood. I think this will end up being larger than one made from metal, but it may work.

An article I wrote for my local wood turning club to give you some idea if you want to pursue a wooden steady rest. For wood turning the diameters of the projects are often larger than for metal. If I made a version for metal, I would use the bearings from the inline skate wheels instead of the entire wheel to enable smaller diameter stock.

Making wooden steady rest for wood lathe
 
Dave Paine said:
Wood turners often make steady rests out of wood. I think this will end up being larger than one made from metal, but it may work.

An article I wrote for my local wood turning club to give you some idea if you want to pursue a wooden steady rest. For wood turning the diameters of the projects are often larger than for metal. If I made a version for metal, I would use the bearings from the inline skate wheels instead of the entire wheel to enable smaller diameter stock.

Making wooden steady rest for wood lathe
Click to expand...

Interesting idea. I wonder what the forces would be turning a 1.625"OD tube 8" long. Would the wood handle it? Even if I had to make it 2" thick, if it works, it works.
 
Wood should work. I've seen wood used for much heavier work than you describe.
I build two, a smaller 11' version for my Rockwell to make a cannon. I later made a much larger one to hold a spider for threading odd shaped actions.
The first one has brass pads on the supports, the later big one got roller bearings. The work is fairly straight forward, but a mill will be a must to do a proper job. I can take pictures today if you need some inspiration.....
 
Roller steady rests are fine, until a chip gets caught and dings up your work; I prefer the old stand by, cast iron as it wears well and does not gall. I have made several steady rests; one had a capacity of about 20", it was for a 24" swing Nebel lathe, it was made of 1 1/2" steel plate, burnt to shape by an electric eye burning machine and was hinged in the usual manner; the latest one is for a 9" Monarch cone pulley drive 'teens era lathe, I made a pattern for it and had it cast in iron, along with a follow rest and large and small faceplates.
 
Cactus Farmer said:
Wood should work. I've seen wood used for much heavier work than you describe.
I build two, a smaller 11' version for my Rockwell to make a cannon. I later made a much larger one to hold a spider for threading odd shaped actions.
The first one has brass pads on the supports, the later big one got roller bearings. The work is fairly straight forward, but a mill will be a must to do a proper job. I can take pictures today if you need some inspiration.....
Click to expand...

Photos would be very much appreciated.
 
A steady rest from a slightly smaller lathe should be fairly easy to raise up to the correct height and adapt to the bed of your lathe
 
"Roller steady rests are fine, until a chip gets caught and dings up your work;

John,
thanks for the info on using bearings on the steady rest. I was just about to modify mine with bearings. Your caution has
made me seriously rethink (unthink) my idea.
 
Here are two examples on You Tube of home-made steady rests:


 
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