Can't Turn Long Objects In The Lathe? Build A Lathe Steady Rest

[@waynec369]

FINALLY! A u-tube machinist who knows how to actually configure and use a quick change tool post! BRAVO!

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks for watching.

[@agentcovert]

Great build once again..Thanks as I'm in need of a steady rest myself..Cheers..

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

No problem and thanks for watching.

[@chrisandjaneonnarrowboatpo3917]

A very interesting video. Really enjoyed watching. A big thumbs up from Chris and Jane ✨️👍🎉

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@rodneykiemele4721]

I have to say, that piece turned out very nice. Great job, thanks for showing us.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

No problem and thanks for watching.

[@kentuckytrapper780]

You can use a carpenter's contour gauge to make out the ways on your lathe, it worked great for me, excellent job, great video, keep'um coming.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks, I did not think of that. That is a great tip.

[@jonsworkshop]

Really well made. You have certainly been caught by the 'project leads to sub project leads to sub project...' daemon. I think you have coped very well and turned out some real quality solutions in a short time. Well done. Cheers, Jon

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thank you very much for your comments Jon Yes, I did get stuck in that 'need to fix a tool to build a tool to build another tool' situation. I'm sure most of us home machinists have been down that road in the past. If not, there is always the future...

[@joell439]

Very impressive results. It’s such a pleasure watching you work and solve problems. 👍👍😎👍👍

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@terrycannon570]

I saved this one to my You Tube projects folder. It would be great to have a PDF file with the design of the project with a footnote to build the base to fit the particular lathe. You might be interested in contacting D Gray Drafting and Design see about working out a deal with him to draw and market your project. I have used his designs and one of his complete kits and am very pleased with him. He has a website if you google him. I have been a subscriber of Mark's channel (Winky) for several years now. Mark is a great guy and very creative as are you. Thanks for bringing us along.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Yes, Mark is very creative and I have learnt a lot from his videos. Thanks for watching.

[@Preso58]

Jon, I like the bearing idea for the ends of the support fingers. Much better for high speed work. That vee on the bed is a bit weird. I'm sure there's a good reason for it but just about every lathe I've seen has a symmetrical vee profile.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks Mark. Maybe that angle is just what this company does for everything (e.g. tooling setup)? Or, maybe it is so you have to purchase the original item? Rustinox has the sane angle on his V-ways.

[@WinkysWorkshop]

I thought the same about the ways... very strange.

[@danbreyfogle8486]

Very nice looking finished product.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks.

[@myworkshop2]

Really good job, and works really well, keep up the good work. Cheers Gazz

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks Gazz 👍

[@MattysWorkshop]

Gday, this steady rest turned out great and you did a great job filming the build, I need to make a new one for my lathe that has a bigger capacity, brilliant job mate, enjoyed watching, cheers

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Once again, thanks for your comments Matty. One thing that I have learned is to check that angle on the V ways. It was a bit of a surprise to me as I assumed it would be at 90 degrees. After a bit of research I see that it is different for different makes of lathes. Some are at really strange angles. Good luck on the build once you get around to it.

[@kentuckytrapper780]

Came out great, excellent build.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thank you.

[@GuardianFilmworks]

Great video and your build turned out very nice

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@homemadetools]

Good work. We shared this video on our homemade tools forum this week 😎

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Looks great!

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks! And thanks for the ideas in your video.

[@WinkysWorkshop]

@@thehobbymachinistnz Your welcome, I love your improvements!

[@eyuptony]

Great job enjoyed watching the build. I bet its a joy to use. Tony

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks for watching. At this point I have only run the small tests. But, I will give it a good test on the next project.

[@joandar1]

A way of measuring the angle is to use an indicator drop over A given distance of cross slide movement and then us trig to calculate the angle. Great project and product, cheers from John, Australia.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks for watching John. Yes, that could be done if you had an accurate method of measuring the V.

[@joandar1]

@@thehobbymachinistnz You can do this using the same method to measure both sides sides at the same top and bottom heights and with that calculate the apex/ peak of the triangle. The bottom points at the same height with the cross slide travel gives a length, then with two angles it is easy. John.

[@ralphpavero7760]

I have to say that really turned out nice nice machining

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thank you very much.

[@HM-Projects]

Came out quite nice, well done 👏

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thank you.

[@thebeardedgunsmith9177]

Nice work as always mate.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thank you.

[@Rustinox]

A lot of "Drehmaschinen" have this bizarre angle on the V-ways. (also mine) I wonder why they do that. End produkt looks really good. Nice work.

[@joandar1]

Perhaps it is to present a larger wear surface on what I would the thrust face, that is to say there will be more load on the broader side during most forward rotation machining operations. Just a thought. John, Australia.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks for watching Michel. It is good to see that its just not my machine that has these V-ways angles.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

That could be the reason for it in this case. I have heard that other makes and brands have different angles, some are less than 45 degrees on the V-ways. So, it is hard to work out why different companies use different angles. Maybe its because they don't want users to swap parts from other brands of lathes so that the user has to purchase the genuine parts?

[@joandar1]

@@thehobbymachinistnz That could be the case about being forced to buy their products and I did consider that, however I was thinking more about the engineering than the marketing aspect, John.

[@BensWorkshop]

Nice work. Oddly I might well make one for my Myford. My Atlas 10 came with one.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks Ben.

[@ianbertenshaw4350]

Awesome video !

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks for the visit

[@azarellediaz4892]

Nice job, I need to make one for a 12-1/2” lathe.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thank you.

[@glennwright9747]

If you use blue dye you can scrape your base to match the final geometry.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks for the tip.

[@mabmachine]

I have to say that lathe bed geometry is sure odd. I like the steady design and the workflow you used to get there. It really turned about great. Seems every project involves at least one side project.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks for your comments.

[@Rochesterhome]

Very nice job.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thank you.

[@nardaoeletronica]

Excellent job

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thank you.

[@joeshomeshop]

Another great video! Have seen Maximats come up for sale every now and again and have always wondered about them, though none as large as yours…seems like some odd choices for way angles, but have to assume there was a reason. Always enjoy seeing how you handle the unexpected. Cheers.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks for your comments. It is a good machine and it is nice to use, but I guess you would expect that with equipment from that part of the world.

[@alanremington8500]

Nice build !!

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thank you.

[@martindennehy3030]

Don't get bogged down on machining the perfect angle for the bed base. I just used a flat piece of plate a lot longer and welded on two 12mm bolts parallel to each other with a gap at right angle to plate at one end of plate for location with shim at far end. Its quick and dirty i know but locates on ridge perfectly.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks for the tip.

[@gregwmanning]

One thing leads to another. Looks just like a real one excellent result. I will be visiting a friend in Timaru, maybe Feb. Where abouts in NZ are you?

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks. I'm in Auckland, what city are you flying in to?

[@gregwmanning]

@@thehobbymachinistnz Hobart to Chch, I thought I ask just incase you were somewhere near Chch/Timaru

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

@@gregwmanning Yes, that makes sense as Chch is the closest Int airport. So no NZ tour up to Auck?

[@gregwmanning]

@@thehobbymachinistnz Not on this trip but i hope to see alot more of NZ in the future holidays. My fvriend only just moved from Akld, so if traveled a few months earlier Id be staying in Green Bay Akld.

[@berniesr]

a great job well done

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thank you.

[@Kevin-gx8lc]

Hi Jon, a great piece of work, I'm sure it will work well for you. That's a very peculiar geometry on your lathe bed but you coped very well with it. You must be doing something right... have you seen how many other YT Makers that have commented... I follow most of them as well as you! By the way... check 'Inheritance Machining', a guy called Brandon from the USA, highly skilled! Also 'Ca Lem' from Vietnam (he's amazing). Greetings from Southport, UK.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Hi, thanks for your comments. Yes, I have seen a number of videos from both of those KZbinrs. They put out some really good content. I saw one video from Ca Lem where he went to a huge second hand machinery market. Wow!! I wish we had that kind of thing here in NZ. Even the roughest second hand equipment is so expensive here.

[@mattylarkspur9858]

i might suggest in order to get the finger holders lined up - you could mill holes in the ring the size of their OD at 120*, then pass them through before welding. or mill the slots for the fingers around the ring first, then use the fingers (or equally sized bar stock) for alignment. though i guess the fingers being exactly 120* is pretty unimportant, all in all.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks for the tip.

[@littlemanhamilton8483]

Just wanted you to know that you can make a template from serial box . Place the serial box at the front of the lathe bed / edge and trace the outline on the template and transfer the result to the stock. Make life les complicated

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

That could work.

[@DuckshotProductions]

is there a reason you don't chamfer before your butt welds?

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Hi, thanks for watching. Re the welding, in this case there is very little load on the part. I'm using a 250amp arc welder so there will be plenty of penetration even on the flush butt welds. Also, there are the internal filet welds that provide a lot of strength.

[@richardbradley961]

NICE BULD, THANK YOU. REGADS RICHARD.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

No problem, thank for watching.

[@Bakafish]

Looks like you are replacing Bronze nuts with Brass. You may want to revisit that choice.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks for pointing that out.

[@ronwilken5219]

I thought at one point I saw you using a magnetic based, for sale of a better word, inclinometer, setting up an angled cut. I might be mistaking you for someone else. However this device, not expensive to buy, would probably have solved the "quirky" angles of the back ways of your lathe. Certainly seems to have some strange angles and relationships to the horizontal and vertical surfaces. I have a Myford lathe and am currently finishing off a Hemingway kit for a four guide fixed steady (4") and a three guide traveling steady (3"). The fingers of the guides I'm not yet sure of as I don't particularly care for their design so I might end up stealing some variation of your's and Winkey's ideas. Thanks for the video. Regards from Canada's banana belt. 🤞❄️🇨🇦🍌🥋🇺🇦🕊️🇳🇿👍

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Hi, thanks for watching and your your comments. I do have a magnetic digital angle finder. That is one thing that I did not think to try. It probably would have made finding out the angles on the ways a lot easier.

[@ronwilken5219]

​@@thehobbymachinistnza year later, and I just watched this again. The answer to your "angles for the base plate and clamp plate" was staring us in the face. Take the tailstock off and clamp your material to it, however you want it oriented. Scribe the outline of the tailstock "floor" onto your stock and whittle away until you meet the appropriate lines. Can also use the lines in the mill vice, with a 1/8" parallel, to get the angle correct in relation to the vice jaw top surface for milling. Watch Joe Pie for his methods on the models he makes.

[@mfs5493]

A very wordy, unprepared video with a lot of irrelevant content.

[@thehobbymachinistnz]

Thanks for watching the entire video.