Making A steady Rest For The Lathe

[@OtherWorldExplorers]

Two axioms I noticed that you work with. 'Why buy what I can build" " Do the best with what you have" A true Machinist.

[@chauvinemmons]

It often is the case making things yourself could be much more expensive either immediately or in the long run. Every time you need a bolt do you get a piece of barstock or do you go and buy one.

[@untamedhacker]

@@chauvinemmonsyes but a lot of the time the "cheap" (as in actually affordable) stuff is usually pretty shoddily made and it's really easy to get pissed off at something you bought, but if you made it yourself you kinda accept it as is/fix it. Plus not everything in life is about money, if you enjoy machining stuff you might as well do it for the enjoyment of doing it.

[@allanpowell7208]

I've yet to see you do anything that you should be embarrassed about. I started at metalwork when I was 12 ( yes we were trusted with a lathe and forgework at that age) I'm now 68 and it pleases me no end to see a young chap like yourself having both the interest and ability in the field. Cheers matey and long may you run.

[@lancer2204]

Nice job! I almost spat my coffee across the desk when you showed the manufacturer's steady rest.

[@Trainwreck1123]

If you hack sawed that 25mm steel bar and didn't show it you did yourself a great disservice!

[@ErikBongers]

Agreed. Unsubscribing.

[@minigpracing3068]

Like a lot of us, he doesn't have a powered saw to do that kind of work. I normally do a bunch until my arms are tired, tame a break, come for more. Really slows the progress down!

[@ErikBongers]

I have one of those portable bandsaws converted to a little table saw. But for most cuts, I still like the manual workout.

[@psykosis101]

He used a grinder. You can tell from the the end in shot just before he cleans it up with the mill

[@GJT-nc4zk]

Push mig drag stick

[@LittleAussieRockets]

I am so happy I watched this video as I need to do something similar for my lathes. There's a few things you did really helped piece it all together for me. Your welds were more than adequate.

[@robdogz01]

bloody good shit mate!! keep up the great work!! no excuses needed when your working with what you got

[@AndyFromBeaverton]

22:17 I thought you would be using roller bearings instead of bearing pads.

[@Pushyhog]

lights, action, camera, edit, timing, focus, audio, filmography & more. Thanks again A.M.

[@Kami8705]

For the leadscrew holders, why not thread or make them a press fit into those holes in the ring, have them go most or all of the way through. No welding needed and easier to modify in the future if needed

[@artisanmakes]

You can, I’m sure that would work, just a different way doing doing the same thing I guess

[@johncolvin2561]

Steady rests need to be hinged to open or at least have slot cut in the ring to allow easy removal and insertion of the workpiece.

[@MegaLostOne]

Nice build, I did one very similar a few years for a Atlas 6" lathe that I have. One thing that I recommend is to place tape or cardboard on the side you are machining on to keep the chips out, if they get in there they will damage the surface and cause early wear to form as well as causing it to want to bind the piece or chew away the brass surfaces so the piece becomes loose.

[@jakeevans8819]

I have an atlas 618 and I need a steady rest do you have any photos of it you can provide so I can replicate it?

[@jakeevans8819]

@@MegaLostOne awesome thank you!

[@clayz1]

Well that ought to do it. Your steady is about three times as heavy as needed, but it is rather hard to hollow out cross sections like big production machines have, ha ha. Nice work.

[@chrisford9045]

The weight is good for damping noise /harshness /vibration

[@irishwristwatch2487]

This is definitely up there as one of your better builds. It looks head and shoulders over the OEM part

[@artisanmakes]

Cheers

[@matthewhendrickson1575]

Grinder and paint make me the welder I ain’t!!

[@mrvector257]

The cut from the parting tool to the hacksaw audio made me chuckle.

[@mgraen]

18:16 It is hard to tell for certain where your welding ground clamp is, but when a part is mounted in a machine like that it should be on the part itself. Otherwise current will be flowing through the spindle bearings and possibly arcing across any tiny gaps there.

[@Flying0Dismount]

He has the ground clamp on the bed rails just ahead of the tail stock, but I agree that this is bad practice as there is a possibility that electricity, trying to find the lowest resistance circuit, could go through hidden bearing surfaces and cause damage. In this case the risk to the spindle is low as he welded to the base block first, but there could have been some arcing at the ground clamp end or under the base block, causing some scarring to the lathe bed ways, but at least those are easily dealt with using a stone.. Same thing applies when welding on a vise as he does in earlier on: best to clamp directly on the part or at least on the jaw/body of the vise. Many people clamp on the handle or the lead screw ball and then they wonder why their vise screw is starting to get so crunchy, because in this case, the current most certainly does flow through the lead screw and nut before hitting the body and finally the part being welded...

[@bscoffeeandwelding7236]

You must have guns like the humongous after all that hacksaw work mate, nice build!

[@wizrom3046]

Great result! 👍 I have a small suggestion for the lower T-nut. If you mill or grind the 2 sides of the top of the oval piece, it will make a small raised square area maybe 1.5mm or 2mm high on top of the oval piece. Then, you can still insert the nut into the lathe bed just as easily, but when you tighten the thread the raised square will lift up and will "lock" into the space between the lathe bed. Then you wont have to worry about the oval piece rotating when you tighten the thread.

[@artisanmakes]

A good suggestion

[@D3nn1s]

​@@artisanmakesi can add to this, if you make it a rhomboid shape with a radius on the dull corners itll lock into place without needing to be pulled up. Thats whats being sold for extruded aluminuim too

[@fredflintstone8048]

Nice. I built a very similar steady rest for my chinese mini lathe. I started with a 6" disk 1" thick. I bored it 4". I didn't weld mine to the base but milled a shallow slot in the base and milled flat the bottom of the disk to give it a solid mount that's bolted. I did this so if I decided to use it with a different lathe in the future I could do it without too much trouble. Mine will take up to 2-1/2" diameter material and I'm using small roller bearing races to meet the surface instead of brass or bronze.

[@KW-ei3pi]

Looks like a nice completed project. Consider adding labels for sped up video. Some are obvious, but when it appears to be at normal speed, your speeds and feeds seem to be too fast. I would think that some of the problems you encountered here could have been eliminated by slowing down the feeds and speeds. Looks like RPM is way too fast on both machines. Thanks

[@t0mn8r35]

Nice project. It's your narration that makes your videos enjoyable.

[@kabal911]

Love this channel. A treat when a new video appears

[@KF-qj2rn]

way better than the 9x20 version which looks like a skeleton in comparison next channel acquisition: TIG welder, the primary benefit part cosmetics rather than structural

[@michaelwooda9444]

I would add some big bevels for your welds in the future.makes a stronger joint and also alot easier to clean up the welds.

[@UncleKennysPlace]

I would consider cutting the ends of the tee nut flanges down just enough so that they catch the bed and won't rotate unless dropped further down.

[@philsmeanderings7991]

Another thing of beauty. Have used the oem steady. Does work but me thinks yours is bound to be a step up. Good stuff bloke .

[@n9viw]

Brilliant! Love watching your work. Congrats on a great build.

[@AmateurRedneckWorkshop]

That was really well done. Thanks for the video keep on keeping on.

[@adamandrews2528]

Nice build, mate. You are getting better and better.

[@MattysWorkshop]

Gday, the steady turned out good, certainly a ton better then the factory steady, great job, cheers

[@artisanmakes]

Cheers matty

[@KarKamp]

I’m so glad I subscribed to this channel

[@clonoid]

Nice one - I've been thinking about making one for my lathe, and this video has reassured me I can do it

[@wrenbrighton2358]

I have an idea for if you ever decide to put ball bearings in it maybe you could Machine a sleeve to fir snuggly over the bearings out of bronze or something soft!. Great video though!

[@cokhichetao72]

Nhìn máy móc mà phát mê

[@homemadetools]

Great work as always. We shared this video on our homemade tools forum this week 😎

[@JohnK8]

I've been wanting to build one of those for some time now. Thanks for the inspiration. Very nice work.

[@jdscott20101]

gorgeous and amazing build. nice video and thanks for sharing

[@Horus9339]

You really are doing special work, outstanding design and workmanship. Thank you for sharing your time with us.

[@SouseMouse]

20:08 😬 The part was tipping up out of the vise! Should use a vee block, and I recommend putting the vee block against the fixed jaw rather than the moving jaw. With the block on the moving jaw you still have two pivot points- the round part against the fixed jaw, and the moving jaw against the leadscrew. The jaw doesn't have a lot of clearance to pivot, but it has some. With the vee block against the fixed jaw it provides two stable contact patches on the part. Nice steady rest!

[@huntz3215]

Great work, I can't justify buying a mill and have nowhere to put it but your videos still tempt me to find an excuse.

[@GeneralChangFromDanang]

Find a spot, whatever it takes lol. The two machines compliment each other and I wouldn't want to go back to one without the other.

[@heathmurphy3735]

Great job there digger

[@antonio39776]

this is a beautiful professional work, well done!

[@steveman1982]

Would a brass lining around a bearing be any good to prevent the work from being marred?

[@artisanmakes]

Someone else asked that too and I really don’t know. I haven’t seen it done before so I guess there is only one way to find out

[@steveman1982]

@@artisanmakes ... future video? ;)

[@seansysig]

Great build! I wish I had one for my Sieg

[@andreassiegler2238]

I'd recomend a scissors type knurling tool and WAY less rpm! These knurls haven't seen enough pressure and therefor are almost non present. You can do them in more than one step, as the wheels will fin their groove again, once they are formed propperly. But with this small lathe and these poor press-on knurling tools, you won't be able to achieve any good result, especially with small diametres and coarse knurls. I also feel high rpms are often a problem here, causing chatter, brocken, or cooked out tools.

[@RossMarsden]

I tell you what! I am impressed with the amount of use you are making of that milling tool you made a few videos ago.

[@OhHeyTrevorFlowers]

For future builds, for the arms you might consider “bearing bronze” which has a bit of iron and aluminum

[@matthewf1979]

Don’t be so hard on yourself. It turned out perfectly serviceable and you can get some bearing bronze later. Great job!

[@misterdeedeedee]

what about ball bearings with brass/bronze rings pressed over the outer race, or not worth the complexity?

[@jrkorman]

All and all I would put this build at the top of the list of projects you've shown. Very good work!

[@vinceearl4240]

Question: Would it have helped to mill flats on the OD of the main body so you weren't welding a flat part onto a round part?

[@harmlesscreationsofthegree1248]

Awesome vid! Good to see the face mill making light work of its task. The steady rest *turned* out really well 😉

[@buddyhoover57]

Beautiful work!

[@RB-yq7qv]

I must say a great job. The small machines performed way above their intend working compacity. You where right to build your own, the off the shelf model is a heap of crap that are only good as a paper weight. The steady rest will give years of service and looks good.

[@mftmachining]

Excellent job. TOP.

[@patrickbeaumier8616]

Nicely done 👍

[@jackphilp7057]

Awesome video! I've always wondered though if you could make a steady rest with each of the fingers being able to "ratchet forward", that way the movement from chatter would tighten it by itself.

[@dirtybarry7002]

I've found the same on my projects - never assume stock is round or flat or to nominal size. It bites us every time.

[@lawrenceclifton1765]

Good solid steady, for mig welding push the torch, currently you are dragging as for arc/stick welding.

[@artisanmakes]

Great point!

[@transmitterguy478]

Excellent work. I will cobble one together for my small lathe.

[@artisanmakes]

Best of luck

[@sicstar]

Sleek build, came out really nice! And good choice not going with ball bearings on that tiny steady rest. For copper and aluminium you need quite a bit of widht on those (the ones on big lathes usually come with a radius on em too which can cause all sorts of funky problems on soft parts that are heavy as frig...) which you can't get from too small of a diameter, which you'd had to use here since the thing is rather tiny. But those Brass Bushings should be up to most stuff with a drop of oil or two as long as the material riding on em isn't too scuffed up.

[@paulthomas3782]

Fantastic effort well done.

[@artisanmakes]

Thankyou

[@billshiff2060]

Kudos for that. I rarely have the time to build pretty stuff. It's always "the part has to be out by tomorrow" stuff so it has to be as fast as possible , as cheap as possible with what's on hand, so long as it works.

[@OhHeyTrevorFlowers]

That’s solid work.

[@williamsantiago7303]

That looks awesome sir👍!

[@asterope1604]

You just keep getting better and better. Keep it up man, I can't wait for the patreon to kick off and get you some bigger machines

[@thomasfkeefe]

I really like this design and would like to make a similar version. From watching the video, I could not determine the size of things very well. Can you indicate the diameter of the fingers and also the width and diameter of the ring that supports the fingers. Thanks.

[@kalusovsky]

Hi I think that maybe you should try dcgt inserts for boring because they have a geometry with sharp cutting edge. This might decrease the cutting force and improve a surface finish.

[@artisanmakes]

I’ve used them a lot in the past. Great inserts although I seem to have broken them all. I need to buy some more

[@peter360adventures9]

Awesome build

[@mbak7801]

Very interesting but a huge amount of work. Personally I would use the blondihacks approach of making bearing based support fingers and keep everything else.

[@zanechristenson3436]

You can leave a short stick out on the stock, face the stock, drill a center, turn between centers, then indicate in with less stick out and drill/bore?

[@artisanmakes]

I can only do that for material that fits in the spindle bore

[@zanechristenson3436]

Ahh I see I did not take that into account forgive my lapse in intelligence lol.

[@artisanmakes]

No worries, just those issues you run into on small lathes

[@williamchamberlain2263]

23:10 - would roller bearings put less point pressure on the work piece?

[@glennwright9747]

Interesting build. The retaining caps you spot welded were superfluous, the knurled knobs will retain the screws.

[@artisanmakes]

No you do need them. Or the lead screw will simply unscrew when you try and unscrew the fingers. It is a common complaint on the stock sieg C3 steady

[@glennwright9747]

I must of missed something.. on mine the shaft of the screw is reduced diameter where it goes through the cap. When I take my adjusting knobs off the screws can then be removed from the frame towards the centre. Like the arrangement of an auto scissor jack. Just a different configuration.

[@Kineth1]

​@@glennwright9747 His lead screws are inserted into the mechanism from outside the ring, so something is needed to keep them in. If he had designed it so that the lead screws were inserted from inside the ring, then just the knob would be sufficient to retain them.

[@glennwright9747]

@@Kineth1 yes!

[@lesmaybury793]

Nice neat job.

[@trevorpom]

Push mig, drag stick. You get better shielding that way in both styles. General rule of thumb when welding.

[@williamchamberlain2263]

Nice

[@pcpkits5330]

How you calculate required depth of the V groove on the base?

[@vivigarr]

The rouging process seems like it could be done in the rotary table / dividing head. Chuck it up and then spin it under the face mill and a roughing endmill for the ID

[@artisanmakes]

Not on my rotary table but if you had a bigger more substantial one it could

[@binomair9326]

Nice work, It looks great for small and home lathe and personal used good job man.

[@angelramos-2005]

I subscribed to your chanel.Excellent project.Thank you.

[@michaelallen1432]

It occurs to me that a good way to make sure that it's aligned would be to change the order of the machine operations a bit. It probably doesn't matter if the actual ring is perfectly concentric with the chuck. It could be off a few thousandths so long as the holes and leads screw are concentric. I'm thinking,, if you had to do it again, make the ring, and attach it to the base before drilling the three holes. Then bore the three holes indicating off the base. The OCD part of me wants to machine little flats so the three housings seat better. Then put those on and bore them in place. Now it all has to line up right. Don't get me wrong though, it looks awesome. I'm going to make one myself.

[@artisanmakes]

Maybe. I don’t know how perfect it needs to be, I’m sure there is a tolerance and this seems to work just fine. There is probably a better order to do this but as I said I was making it up as I was going along and half this stuff isn’t presented in the order that it is filmed. Cheers

[@jamesriordan3494]

Well done 👍🏻

[@thedolphin5428]

Nice job. A couple of tiny improvement suggestions: Place locking T-nut on RHS/OUTSIDE of rest, rather than LHS/INSIDE. Could still be done with a new base-V milled, then flipped around. Toolless knurled or T-bar locking plugs for the 3 rest finger tighteners instead of needing an Allen Key tool.

[@freestyla101]

I always see machinists indicate long parts in from the tailstock end. What is the theory here? I would have thought the chuck would pull the part in square no matter how much you tap it. Also great looking steady. Can’t go wrong with steel and brass in the looks department.

[@nardaoeletronica]

Always excellent job.

[@leeharveygriswold6160]

Nice work mate, well done. If I could offer you some advice it would be to change your welding from a drag to a push with a bit more heat or less feed and no wiggle. Try it out on some scrap and see how you go. Also a light dust of anti spatter spray makes the world of difference.

[@TheDistur]

Oh boy that's fancy.

[@justtestingonce]

Why can’t it be square on the outside and round on the inside?

[@artisanmakes]

It can be, probably wouldn’t look all that nice. Although I’m just using the stock that I could get my hands on

[@jameshisself9324]

Nice, I've been thinking about making one of these. Can not for the life of me figure out why you didn't create U slots in the ends and mount sealed bearings with a through bolt to work as rollers. I agree about the scraping effect being undesirable and mine will have to have these rollers.

[@tomeyssen9674]

Nice rest. Beefy too.

[@D3nn1s]

Great build. That steady rest you can buy really does look like a pos. I mean whats the fun in owning machines that dont improve themselves, just like 3d printers :D Maybe im wrong because its sped up at some parts, but i would suggest slowing down the rpms, especially when filing the part and when you were breaking inserts before you bored out the center. Shouldnt break that easily if that was normal steel :) Ive had issues too with HSS or hardened steel, cant recall lol, because i was going way to fast

[@grahameblankley3813]

Very impressed 👍🇬🇧.

[@olieboer]

Hey. Im no expert, but i think you're supposed to add some oil to the fingers to reduce drag. And about the ball bearings. Can't you machine a brass or bronze rim, to soften up the outer bearing race?. That way they won't dig in or mar, and you can crank up the fingers a bit more for added stability/stiffness

[@billshiff2060]

He did add oil. Brass rollers wouldn't last more than a few minutes then would be like fred flintstone wheels.

[@olieboer]

@@billshiff2060 ah yeah. Now that i know, i see it. Makes sense now that i think of it. It would just depress under the pressure. Although if they served Fred Flintstone, must be not all bad 😋. Anyway @artisanmakes: nice video. I watch all of your videos. Makes creating professional metalworking projects look accessible voor a noob like me

[@garyshirinian]

Great video, how about making your self a bandsaw. Breacks my heart seeing you cut things with hand held saw.

[@shiro-r4m]

I'm sure you've heard this a lot by now but a 3 phase motor with a vfd for the lathe would help a lot with parts like this large ring to run it at a slower speed. It would likely stop you burning through inserts on these kinds of parts by running at a more reasonable speed

[@artisanmakes]

Yea I have heard that a lot. Maybe one day :)

[@howder1951]

Nice work, and a great Bir of designing. Amazing work for your smallish equipment, it looks like your mill is really well tuned. Enjoyed very much, cheers!

[@HM-Projects]

Looks very cute and solid. Nice upgrade. I guess you can make a roller bearing style 3 point contact with Al or Phosphor Bronze, that'll avoid marking the stock.

[@raymondhorvatin1050]

looks great🙂

[@TommiHonkonen]

i might add some flats on the t nut so it locates itself

[@doylerabjohn3435]

That functions great & looks good. Definitely a better welder then me. I cant weld at all. Great job

[@andreasbrunnhofer]

Nice work! 😎👍 When working with a steady rest its always a good thing to have some sort of protection to prevent metal shavings getting caught in between the bearing surface and the workpiece. Cardboard with a cutout for the workpiece sticked in front of the steady rest is doing a great job for it.