Steady Rest principles.

I like the simple approach that ChrisLH has used.

Model engineers and home workshop types tend to overlook the stiffness of judiciously bent sheet materials. I guess hefty lumps of solid material feel reassuringly much stronger and stiffer even though the extra weight adds pretty much nothing to the useful strength. It does kill vibration tho'.

Probably doesn't help that most of us don't have kit to easily and accurately bend adequately thick material say 10 gauge / 3 or 4 mm steel.

I'm minded to try something similar for my P&W B as I have no steadies with it. That is a larger machine, 12" swing in American terms meaning almost 14" in reality so a bit of beefing up seems indicated. One piece construction with flange all round having an integrated foot with all corners welded should be usefully stronger. Taking the top corners out so the upper part is sort of half a hexagon ought to help too. As will cutting some slots across the flange bends to weld in triangular fillets. Welding will need care to avoid distortion. The simple bar fingers bolted through slots make things useful stiffer too. Two sets of fingers, one short and one long, would be advisable for the bigger machine so there is plenty of fixing area.

I think delrin for the pads unless I decide to use up the small ball bearings in the useful bits box.

Clive

Here is an unusual type that has different sized holes and can be rotated and locked to suit

Vic - is that really a Steady Rest ? The Holes appear to be conical all the way thru. Is it actually a Device to steady the End of long Stock so a Center Hole can be drilled in it ?

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It's a fixed steady rather than a travelling one, the barrel of the tailstock is shown inserted there as a means to accurately adjust the the setting so it will remain centred whichever one is rotated to. Ideal for rod & wire work

Cast iron is stiffer than ali, but in tension it's less stiff than steel. Exact values for CI depend on the mix see this.

Main advantage of CI for machine tools is damping, but castings tend to be eaevy, so more material, so even tho the material has lower Young's modulus, the component is stiffer (because there is more of it)

I've 3D printed a custom steady before now, fitted three ball races onto spigots. I put a ring of insulation tape on the work to stop it being marked. It worked very well.

Neil

ega I used Delrin for the pads because I had some. The choice is unlikely to be critical for occasional use. The ali I used is only about 0.090 thick again because I had some and I wasn't planning mamoth cuts. In any case loads are largely up in which direction quite a lot of material is in direct tension leading to small deflections if used gently.

Thank you - Delrin sounds like a good choice.