Junk build: Lathe Steady Rest

I found this shaft collar in the river a while back, and it took me a long time to figure out what it wanted to be. When I started scrap metal build to make a steady rest for my lathe, I figured it would make a good centerpiece for it. Made some mistakes along the way, but I'm happy with the result.
#Shopmadetools
If you like what I'm doing here and find some value in it, consider supporting my work on Patreon: / jeremymakesthings
I promise I'll still mostly make stuff out of rusty junk and not just buy shiny things with your money.

[@clifffiftytwo]

Thinking about that shaft collar lying in the mud underwater for years waiting to be discovered and re-purposed. The forge welding of that hard steel to the cast is another mystery, another story. With the demonstration of all the various metalworking techniques, this is a most fascinating video.

[@CraigsWorkshop]

I love the re-use of old ruined materials. I know from experience how much extra work that is, compared to using new materials! At least double the work. Bravo - looking forward to seeing more of your machining art.

[@verisimilitudo1]

Has to be one of my favorite one liners on You Tube ever: "Grab your junk and go make something." Make for a great T-shirt! Nice work and thanks for the inspiration.

[@infoanorexic]

I've been living with an indirect inguinal hernia for the past 6, close to 7, years. It will take the wind out of your sails. Even with devices to keep it reduced and contained, there are days that are not easy. But there are times where something must get done, so, that is pretty much what happens ... It's ... a fitting phrase for me.

[@atheistsfightclub6684]

This is why i love the post apocalyptic inventors channel, take something that someone threw away as worthless and breathe new life into it. =)

[@pjofurey6239]

That rest looks like it earned its patch for the last 3-400 years. Unique class as always . Can’t get enough,as if I need to see any possibilities in “scrap “

[@RotarySMP]

Great opening "I found this in the river". Brilliant.

[@camillosteuss]

Di`n`t expect to see you here... how`s the chuck goin? any luck getting the jaw/s? Speakin` of which, why not just make those jaws? l get that the serrations are a bit tricky to replicate in high precision fit, but you could just jig it with one of the existing jaws and a mill head tilted to the side so that an endmill matches the angles, hell, you could actually make it with a slit-saw at an angle...

[@RotarySMP]

@@camillosteuss The serations would be easy to make on the Maho, as I have slotting head. The are 60° 1.5mm serations. Making additional soft and maybe hard jaws was my plan, but the tolerances of the cracked base jaws make them extremely challenging. They are surface ground on multiple surfaces, and from the fit and feel, I would guess the tolerances are only a couple µm's. Without a surface grinder, not a realistic part for me to make. I would also expect that they are machined from a forging, and not billet, to ensure the correct grain for maximal fatique strength.

[@camillosteuss]

@@RotarySMP Nice, i know about your maho, tho im not into cnc and i dont have a maho, tho i meant and will nab a certain one if still on market when ill have some more shekels(rubs hands).... Tho its a manu-matic maho with pin table control and handwheels... But what i meant, and yes a surface grinder would be nice, but you could replicate the functional geometries and change the overall design a bit to make them more robust in that certain point, like drilling 2 holes parallel through the jaw and shrink fitting them with titanium rods or such, i dont know, im not making those so i am not invested in the project that much, but you get the idea... also, regarding surfgrind - you can always climb mill those and lap them in by hand on a pane of glass with 5000 wetpaper and micron diamond afterward on a sheet of paper backed by alu foil on that same pane of glass to make it perfect fit... it would be a 50 min process id say from my 400 hours of hand lapping knives on wet sandpaper... I do have a surface grinder, so i dont lap or hone parts by hand, apart from my kitchen knives, but it not such a terror when you just get on with it and dont stop to complain every 5 minutes... :P All the best, Steuss

[@Cole-xq2tl]

This channel is awesome! You've found a really neat niche in machining, don't think ive ever seen someone do upcycling machining content

[@atheistsfightclub6684]

There's a guy i think in the Philippines, Debby Novrinal, who made a lathe and a milling machine from scrap that looked like it came from breaking ships using not much more than an angle grinder and a welder.

[@guerillagardener2237]

This is a good example of repurposed material. Love it.

[@jimsvideos7201]

Considering what a piece of material like your upright would cost new, I'd say that river of yours is all but a gold mine.

[@PioneerRifleCompany]

I greatly commend the amount of work you put forth into tooling. Makes a gunsmith proud! :)

[@rickpalechuk4411]

You should post the vid of you actually going down to the Titanic and scavenging parts from it 😉 Nice build, thanks for sharing Cheers

[@barthanes1]

Coolest thing I've ever seen made out of tractor weights.

[@johnkoury1116]

When we look at a hunk of rusted steel, we see whatever we want. Anyone else already threw it out as trash long ago. A wonderful form of recycling!!! Do they make bolts that have a bearing on the end of them. If not , then we should make them. It would be so helpful.

[@reiniertl]

That steady has character. It is one of a kind, that's for sure.

[@Al-Fiallos]

You are right, one doesn't always have to spend a fortune on tooling. I have the Harbor Freight 8x12 minilathe. To save money on tooling I made my own steady and traveling rests. Also made several tool holders. Everything from old scrap on hand.

[@metalworksmachineshop]

amazing how you see something from nothing.. nice work.

[@howder1951]

Very nice, I like the look you achieved with the corroded metal, lots of patience and slow and steady. Enjoyed, cheers

[@williamsworkshopuk]

23:59 I felt that in my soul

[@nickhenscheid369]

Definitely loving the aesthetic. Looks like it's been at the bottom of the sea for 500 years.

[@robertdominiczak6523]

About 40 years ago I found a an old Ford flat head v8 and the surface was just like that covered in rust and badly pitted, got it running without having to buy anything and turned it into a coffee table with a glass top, it would still run , it’s still a good runner. Superb centre piece and something to talk about. Love your videos

[@jositusthefirst]

Nadie es perfecto, pero intenta ser lo mejor posible, si no le importa voy a compartir su canal en mi Twitter, me ha parecido muy interesante.

[@kentuckytrapper780]

Kid you give new meaning to from trash to treasure, excellent job..

[@edsmachine93]

Re-purposing Old Iron. Nice idea for your steady rest. Very unique. I think that it is pretty good and heavy duty. Thanks for sharing the process. Take care, Ed.

[@daviddaddy]

I absolutely Love! watching you build things from basically trash lol. you use some of the most rustiest, crustiest, corroded Metal ive ever seen lol and then some how with wizardry or some other magic? Lol turn it into not just something nice, but something precise and functional! you are a great Machinist! Your Craftsmanship is phenomenal and just really really nice! And inspirational. I really enjoy watching you build things. It gives me alot of inspiration to try and achieve more in my projects. Thank you so much for all your hard work and dedication and filming hours and hours of footage and then editing it all down. probably countless very tedious hours editing on each video. So Thanks again bro. Oh and is that a bluepoint tap wrench i see? Lol take care buddy and i hope you have a wonderful! rest of your weekend.

[@evanpenny348]

Really agree with all this, but got a weird feeling watching you machine rust off. I would have sand blasted all that rust stuff of first.

[@JeremyMakesThings]

You’re not wrong, and I’ve been trying to do a better job cleaning it up each time, but some of this heavy scale is tough stuff to get all of it. I also really need a blast cabinet. Maybe I can make one out of a half-rusted out drum?

[@jamespooler8809]

@JeremyMakesThings A needle scaler or air hammer with a chisel tip would work. I recently started watching your channel, where is your shop located? I have a few 30gal and 55gal drums is good shape that could be turned into a small media cabinet.

[@JeremyMakesThings]

I’m in New Hampshire. The reason I don’t have a blast cabinet is I really don’t have the space for it at the moment.

[@watahyahknow]

sumting i did when i made a steady reast out of a piece of thick plate was made the bed part first set it up on said bed near the chuck and then used the chuck to scribe the circles needed for the top part , this helped a lot centering the thing to the chuck itself , you can use the chuck to put a center in it as whell so you can set it up on a ratoary table and cut the round parts with the mill

[@chopiesthechook]

I love everything you have going on here Jeremy: skilled machinist, upcycling is interesting/cool, great pacing of content and your relaxed attitude.

[@manmachinemake3708]

Dammed good work Jeremy ! My smallest lathe is a 1947 Logan 820 and it too is missing the steady rest (No taper or follower either) If I had more time, I would definitely make one for it. Thankfully, my Monarch 10EE and old S.B. 14-1/2" both have one for those days when it's is absolutely required.

[@imonlyhalfnutsreally2113]

Evaporust works remarkably well

[@thisolesignguy2733]

I love it, it reminds me of an old nautical part and i think it's pretty cool. That would look great on an old vintage belt driven lathe

[@avago2day]

The person that never makes mistakes, never made anything.

[@deedeeindustrialsuperprecision]

The cost of a used steady rest is very high if you can even find one, yours is really solid.

[@homemadetools]

Excellent!

[@smallshoptalk589]

Wow, it works. very nice. I enjoyed watching.

[@Vibraza]

Its pleasure to watch this beauty things and your work.

[@jamieclark7221]

Great Job Young Man !!

[@peter360adventures9]

Awesome work

[@kenezso1311]

Brilliant….well done !

[@joell439]

That has to be the coolest steady rest I’ve ever laid eyes on 👍👍😎👍👍. I suspect I’m fully unqualified to suggest something to the master, but maybe this observation will help after watching almost your entire uploaded content…... You might consider churning out a couple of machinist jacks if you don’t have some yet, and then use them in your more dodgy setups 😜. Unless of course you’re trolling us as I say out loud ….. to myself….. self, he probably should add a machinist jack to that setup. 🤙🤙

[@nevillecartwright7292]

Unbelievable work!! You put a lot of thought into making this steady rest and it looks awesome! Well done, thanks for sharing, and greetings from South Africa!

[@TroubledTimes2024]

That was awesome.

[@TradeWorks_Construction]

I get that urge quite often too sometimes you just wanna play with the machine. Totally unrelated but excellent use of superfluous. Not very often you get to sneak that one in to a conversation. And whoever said it takes 2x the time and effort to repurpose rust old parts should have said it’s 4x the work😅.

[@-Deena.]

Just found your channel and love it! Using scrap is so good. Subbed 🧡

[@stevenfoster1940]

I've been wanting to make a steady rest for my old South Bend this was very helpful thank you

[@seamusbolton215]

You Sir, are talented

[@ccbproductsmulti-bendaustr3200]

👍👏👌Cheers Chris

[@johnpartridge7623]

Nice job mate 👍👍👍

[@jimsvideos7201]

For small stuff (or non-round material) a lathe spider is an easy project and might make for a video too.

[@duaneglover9283]

Vary cool, good job, two thumbs up

[@WrenagadeWorkshop]

I'm really enjoying your content right now but hot damn, that fixed steady is fricken awesome dude, it's a beautiful marriage of form and fuction, well done 👏 I really like that your projects are mostly made from recycled materials, your essentially cleaning the world with every build 👍

[@jebowlin3879]

when your new tool has seen some things, real nice job there, Im no machinist, but if it does the job...

[@desertTooHot]

You're right. I don't have to be perfect. Ty for the quote. Time to go finish that vice I'm working on.

[@Mad.Man.Marine]

Good stuff man!!! Love the end saying as well. That shits funny!! Nice work.

[@tomeyssen9674]

Cool...enjoyed.

[@infoanorexic]

Good illustration of the dilemma we live with. A line boring bar would have been best on that steady, but to make one ... you need a steady.

[@dikhed1639]

Luv ur peice of art.

[@imonlyhalfnutsreally2113]

You sir are a machinist, inventor, artist and generally a damned handy guy. It would be fun to live next door to you. Its fun to watch your imagination at work. That's a very nice rest you ended up with. I don't know why you don't have like a jillion subscribers but I subbed. Keep up the great work and keep making videos, please. Really and truly that rest is awesome. I'm just curious, do you have any idea how many hours that took in all ? I wish I had your perseverance, that's my weakness, well among others 😀.

[@JeremyMakesThings]

I always lose track of time in the shop, so I honestly have no idea.

[@couttsw]

The phrase steam punk machinist comes to mind

[@cowjazz7906]

beautiful

[@ikesquirrel]

I love it

[@josiassantoscosta5322]

Gostei muito do seu trabalho, parabéns!!

[@mikekerezsi9672]

Great attitude

[@TalRohan]

very very cool indeed

[@willemvanderschyff8766]

Master!

[@bustednuckles2]

I also just found your channel and subbed. I like the way you think.

[@ronwilken5219]

Art from junk. Who'da thunk! Who really cares what it looks like as long as it serves it's intended function. Congratulations sir. I'm curious to know what that fused chunk of metal was originally used for. It would have made a good shear blade properly ground. Regards from Canada's banana belt 🤞🇨🇦👍

[@greglaroche1753]

You make a lot of interesting things out scrap metal. Thanks for the video. How are your tools effected buy the rust scale? How do inserts work. Seems like there could be a lot of interrupted cuts.

[@stewartfrye]

Wouldn't it be easier to start with Iron Ore?

[@gtfp4004]

Recently found your channel, loving the content. I have 2 questions, 1. how the hell do you just find this stuff in rivers, and 2. Can we get some info on that vise with the odd jaws you used in the beginning of this video to hold the found piece?

[@JeremyMakesThings]

1) It’s a combination of abandoned mill sites and people dumping stuff in the rivers because…that’s what they did back then. 2) kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4q4gWeuZdh_apY

[@timothywalsh866]

Rust punk!

[@michaelcalabro2376]

Nice, have you ever considered steaming or boiling to convert the rust rather than cold bluing?

[@JeremyMakesThings]

I’ll have to look into that.

[@What-is-thehandle]

Just found your channel. I'm loving the content you provide. Do you have another channel? If not I swear you have a voice and video editing style doppleganger.. the channel I'm referring to is called, Table top machine shop.

[@JeremyMakesThings]

Nope, not me.

[@mrayco]

We all make mistakes no worries yesterday I did one bearing seat must be 17mm I did it 16mm how nice I prefer to hit by something instead of doing that .any way,,, nice video .thanks

[@steveshopworxmachine5716]

I recognize your mill because I have one. Are you using the collet setup for a particular reason? There are import Brown & Sharpe No 9 collets readily available. I use them daily. It frees up a good 3" or more of space by ditching the collet setup.

[@JeremyMakesThings]

I have a very specific reason for using the collet set up. It’s really, really, really stuck in the spindle. Ridiculously stuck. The sort of stuck where it’s been soaking in perpetrating oil…since I got the mill. The kind of stuck where I don’t even have a drawbar for the mill. I’ve tried everything to get it out, short of chucking the spindle in the lathe and boring it out, which I may do eventually. But for now, it works, so I haven’t gone nuclear on it yet. I’m a little worried that when I do, I may find some damage to the spindle taper, so I’m leaving well enough alone. But the extra clearance and rigidity would be nice.

[@steveshopworxmachine5716]

@@JeremyMakesThings Oh man that is a good reason. Haha. I have a spare spindle. It's not the best ever. I've been toying with the idea to send it off to Index and get it ground for R8 but it's like $600 last time I check. The splines are worn on it so it kinda thuds a little bit. If you ever get in a bind just remember me and I'll consider selling it. Does your mill have the power feed for the X axis? I bought another mill for $300 just for the power feed. Love it.

[@JeremyMakesThings]

@@steveshopworxmachine5716 mine had the power feeds on the table and quill, but all that’s left are the worm wheel on the table and the pulley on the spindle.

[@steveshopworxmachine5716]

@@JeremyMakesThings I did not have the spindle feed. Wish I did. Not sure why it was ever removed buts it's not a big deal. I have a Cincinnati Tool Master mill for all that stuff but I like running this old thing. Just fun to run something nearing 100 years old. Best I can date my mill is 1939 but I'm not sure if that's correct or not.

[@JeremyMakesThings]

There’s a serial number reference here: wiki.vintagemachinery.org/Index-Machine-Tool-Co.ashx? Mine is from 1947- both buy that charts and confirmed by wells-index.

[@Tammy-un3ql]

👍👍👍👍

[@life.is.to.short1414]

Finding trash. Turning it into gold. 👍

[@TheWoodyworker]

Blackfly

[@johnwhauserman]

Tool steel.

[@TROUROCKS]

subd

[@sacriptex5870]

a titanic rescue lathe steady rest

[@MrIRONbox]

This rusty thing is very strange.

[@borodach1990]

Красавчик из гомна и палок люнет собрал)

[@chrisnixon2179]

Making something new that looks old..humm..you should have been a woodworker

[@JeremyMakesThings]

I may have made my bathroom vanity out of an old wooden ladder.

[@jasontofini3412]

24:53 why the hell would you have your hand on a workpiece, especially one that is possibly unstable like that one. You're not gonna stop it from going anywhere, you're just going to get hurt

[@boogiewoogiebubbleboy2877]

Since subscribing to your channel last year, when i received a link to your Jeep building project, I've been catching up on your videos. Picking them randomly, hear and there instead of starting at the beginning. I know, I know, I'm a rebel.🫡 I really do love the look of this rest. At first, I thought it was a bonkers idea. 🤪 No, truly, i did think that. How on earth is this man, who I know can turn his hand to almost anything, going to turn that piece of rusty old iron junk into a working rest?🤔 Jesus is believed to have turned water into wine, right? So, I guess anything is possible, right? 🙏 Wait! Before all you bible readers out there start grating on my backside. YESSS, I said backside. I'm British, English to be precise and polite too, so we don't use the word Ass.🫢 No, I do not think Jeremy is Jesus or the new Messiah or even G. I must not say his full title, but you know who G is from this context, right? One! 🤫 I said his name.😡 He, as in Jeremy, is not THAT good, but he could be. In another universe. 👽 So where was i? Oh yes. I'm thinking. Will he melt it down to mould a new one? No. Will he manufacture new parts and then attach the rusty bits to make it look good? Umm, possible. I know. He's going to tidy it up, just a little. Then, make an adjustment here, an adjustment there. Do a little lathe work. Machine a few nuts, bolts, and pins. Do a little dance 🤗 while he files a bit off here n there. Throw in a little sanding for good measure and voilà. There, there she is, the finished article, and doesn't she look terrific?👍 For those of you who are wondering what the word "voilà" means and why I used it. No, it has nothing to do with musical instruments. It has nothing to do with the film "V," although V said Voilà. It has nothing to do with the part of a womans anatomy. You would have to be French to understand its true meaning and the words preceding it but to non French speaking people. Voilà simply translated means "there" or "that is." Just one question. Why didn't you add a small roller bearing to each of the three steady rods? I watch several engineering channels, and admittedly, their rests are larger. Yours must be the smalest I've ever seen, and i bet that's not the first time you've been told that. 🫣 One thing they all have in common are roller bearings, used to prevent damage to the rod or the tube being worked. Some use a thin tube attatched to the side, which is then bent inwards. This allows coolant to be aimed directly onto the rod if needed if it is to be cooled. Alternatively, if using oil, most have a small tube drilled or bored on larger machines, through the top steady rod, which can allow oil to drip down directly on to the bearing, which helps prevent wear marks, such as when working with polished chrome. Oh, about your nuts. I like the fact that you made square ones not just because that's how the old timers made them, but they fit in well with the look and the rest of your nuts. Like the ones that secure your cutting tools on the toolpost. They look similar, right? Great job. Thanks for sharing. 😁🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧⚒️🇺🇦🇮🇱

[@JeremyMakesThings]

Wow. 😆 I think there was a question in there about bearings. Basic answer it it would have made it much more complicated. Just using threaded fingers means they’re one piece instead of three or four- the bearing would require a sliding bit that doesn’t rotate, I addition to the adjustment screw. This way, the adjustment screw is also the contact piece. The bronze acts pretty well as a bearing, and as long as I don’t tighten it too much and keep it lubed, don’t do much, if any, damage.