DIY steady rest?

[glycerine]

I've seen a few homemade steady rests using rollerblade wheels. Have any of you made a steady rest? I'd like to hear your experiences and see pics and even tutorials if you have them. I'm thinking of making one for doing tall pepper mills and other longer spindle work... pros/cons? Is it worth making or should I just buy one?

 

[KenV]

Would you rather turn or build tools??? The answer to that questions makes the choices easier.

Oneway bowlrest base fits the steady rest. The steady rest does not want to handle the bowl rest -- in case you decide to go the money vs time choice.

Circular with arms is good (steel commercial or wood home brew) -

I decided I wanted to turn and got the one way.

 

[glycerine]

Would you rather turn or build tools??? The answer to that questions makes the choices easier.

Oneway bowlrest base fits the steady rest. The steady rest does not want to handle the bowl rest -- in case you decide to go the money vs time choice.

Circular with arms is good (steel commercial or wood home brew) -

I decided I wanted to turn and got the one way.

Honestly, I love to make things on my own. I don't mind making jigs and tools instead of turning. I also like to NOT spend alot of money. But if my mdf steady rest will not hold up as well as a cast iron or aluminum commercial version, I don't want to waste my time.

 

[Nate Davey]

I made my own and it has come in handy. I went to Play It Again Sports and bought the best pair of old in line skate they had, which cost me $25 and gave me 8 wheels with all 16 bearings, two per wheel. I cheated and had the ShopBot operator at work cut my rings out of 3/4 plywood for me, not very good at cutting them with a jig saw. I have a Jet 1642 so my outside diameter was 16" and the rings are 1.5" thick. This centered the ring on my spindle. Not a difficult project, found a couple good pics on the net and went for it. Used wing nuts on the back side of the arms. I need to replace the washers on the either side of the wheels as they are too big and had to loosen the nuts so the bearings were being used.

I, also, enjoy building my tools, next project, a string steady rest and articulated hollowing arm.

 

[KenV]

Jeremy building tools is good -- and so is turning.

I did not want to do the wooden circle and the metal ones were more work than I wanted to go at this time. Maybe later. I do a fair amount of tool work with a micro metal lathe, gas wrench mig welder and a lot of HSS laying around -- but a big lathe needed something pretty stable.

You may want to think about a "follower Rest" to support the back of the pepper mills as they turn and avoid vibration. The inline roller skate wheels are good -- and if you cut a couple of grooves for neoprene o-rings, even better.

A 2 or better 3 wheel follower rest is less work to fabricate and can be adapted to a second banjo pretty easily (or make your own banjo).

I remember seeing one not too long ago --

Found it

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/6441

It is shown as a bowl steady, but those work for spindles too -- and the next picture down is a small one about the correct size for pepper mills. That style is what is on my microlathe (metal turning).


Good luck with your tool building

 

[jwoodwright]

I made this out of scrap to see if it would work. Worked so well I still use it. Wheels are from Salvation Army Thrift Shop. I routed dadoes for the arms. They're attached with 1/4 inch flat head bolts and wing nuts. Works great on my Powermatic 4224. Can also be used for smaller diameter stock.

 

[PaulDoug]

Here is the one I plan on making this next year. Looks pretty easy to make, pretty cheap, and very functional.

http://azwoodturners.org/SteadyRest.pdf