- Joined
- Oct 6, 2010
- Messages
- 699
Another member on this forum and I have been trying to come up with a used steady rest for our lathes without having to spend a lot of money. He had gotten one that was too tall to fit his machine and I had gotten one from a dealer in hopes it could be made to fit either one of the two Southbend lathes I have. The one I had was too tall for my 10” lathe and too short for the 14 ½” lathe. So we did a little tool trading to get both of us closer to having a useable steady rest. The base clamp with the one I traded him would not fit beneath the ways on his machine so I kept it and told him I would make another to fit his. I had found a chunk of cast iron on a recent trip to the scrap yard that was just right for this project. This afternoon I cleaned the winter oil protection and dust from the mill ways, oiled them, and made some chips. The attached photo is the resulting steady base clamp. I only had to machine the ends, the steps at the ends, the bolt hole and the bolt head slot. The rest of the cast piece is as found. Hope it fits for him.
We both have some additional work to do on our steady rests before they will fit our machines but that is just more projects in waiting.
Benny
We both have some additional work to do on our steady rests before they will fit our machines but that is just more projects in waiting.
Benny