Steady rest - metal or roller bearings ?

I am renovating the pictured steady rest. What do people think about the relative merits of metal tips vs roller bearings , - if the latter where to get them ?.

When I made a larger capacity steady rest for my HBM 290 lathe I used small roller bearings. The rest can also use the brass fingers that came with the stock fixed steady.

Thor

Capnahab, looks very much like a DSG steady you have there !. I've heard it said that roller bearing ones are more susceptible to chip ingress than your type.

That looks very similar [but not exactly] like the one for my DSG 17t. The finger pads on my one are phosphor bronze [ I think ] certainly not brass. I prefer the solid type rather than the roller type especially if cutting very close to the fingers. Rollers are fine if they are kept away from the swarf. If im using the roller type on me other lathe then I always put a piece of card between the rollers and the cutting tool, so no swarf gets beside the rollers.

Raymond.

I've just made a large dia. steady, used roller bearings (from Arc) , cheap enough not to worry to much about swarf. This for large dia. pipe and will be light cuts. It is my impression that solid fingers, clamped tight, are best for shaft turning and good finish, but you need a good finish first before using the solid fingers.

If you want to use roller bearings try Simply Bearings the web page is very good. You could use 2RS rubber shielded bearings to stop swarf ingress. Me I am happy with bronze pads I only use a steady a couple of times a year.

I've been thinking about making a rest with rollers for a while but sealed bearings seem a bit bulky for the job

Will probbly try PB rollers on a steel shaft to start with

Hi Chris

I believe the ingress that Roger referred to was the ingress of swarf between the bearing OD and the rotating work.

To ensure no marking on the work I clamp and turn a nylon collar to fit the work for the hardened steady fingers to run on. The clamping Jubilee clip has been removed in the picture below.

Emgee

Edited By Emgee on 09/12/2015 13:13:11

Emgee, your right, that's what I should have said !. Perhaps DSG thought the same by not fitting the steady with roller bearings.

If you want to go the roller bearing route, have a look at a V8 (American) car shop and their stock of hydraulic cam followers. Cheap as chips too. Bearing and shaft can all be used as an all in one item. Personally i like bronze fingers, but both have their merits.

Thanks Thaiguzzi, have you got a link please ?.

Sorry, no. Google a V8 car engine image to get the idea or "hydraulic cam followers". Plenty of 'Mercan car shops about, and engine internals are generally ridiculously cheap. You''d need 3.

If you are in the UK and seeking hydraulic roller followers, remember the Rover (ex Buick) V8 that found its way into all sorts of vehicles including LandRovers.

Cheers, Tim

I have made steady rest pads from Nylon. Made as wide and as long as possible for more bearing area.

You can always add sealed ball bearings. They don't need to be big ones, they will only be taking side loads. I keep telling myself to get round to doing it to my boxford steady every time I use it especially on aluminium. Often it's just a case of drilling and reaming fixing holes in the fingers and making the "studs" to support them. The bearing size is set by where the fixing holes need to be in order to make the set up strong. I have used a steady on a very large lathe where this had been done with much smaller bearings than I would be inclined to use. The finger ends were well tapered to allow low diameters to be gripped. As small as they were the bearings still increased the minimum size that could be gripped.

Some people modify the fingers so that they can take various tips - some plastics are favourite. I am not so keen on that method as it wont be as rigid as bearings.

John

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Standard flat bottom lifters are relatively cheap as chips, but Roller cam followers used in American V8 and other engines are 'generally' an aftermarket racing or high performance road application, you may be able to buy followers individually, but I suspect they won't be cheap, they cost a small fortune during my F5000 Chev and Ford big block engine building days, the main producers being specialist companies such as Crane Cam's,

Rover V8's in standard form use flat bottom cam followers, roller cam follower and roller rocker kits are produced for them, but again, they're an aftermarket product and likely to be in fairly expensive engine sets rather than individual items.

Quite common nowadays, even the Ford Serria 1.8 CVH has them fitted.

Plenty in the scrapyards or even new they are only four and a half quid a pop.

**LINK**

I,v got one roller finger from (I think) a vertical lathe ex NZ Railway workshop Addington Christchurch, I use it in the tool post to push things straight.

Ian S C

I am keeping the metal fingers as they are hardly used. Somewhere between Middlesborough Tech and me the holding plate for the steady rest has dissappeared. Its the same as the one for the tailstock. I got a quote from the manufacturer for one and needless to say it was in the same ballpark as the cost of the lathe. In the same town as the manufacturer found a brilliant Foundry (no association) who have made me two castings which I now need to machine. The tailstock plate is on the left, castings on the right. About a third the price.

I have just found this interesting design for the WW style of Watchmaker's Lathe.

MOWRER

He is offering printed parts, in "Bronze infused Stainless Steel"

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 03/01/2016 10:41:48