Hemingway large bore fixed steady kit

Just arrived.

The instructions are lathe-based, but I’d like to use the TS mill. As it happens, Steveigtr has put out a set of videos of his build, which I’m working through. I’d be interested in his comments particularly.

Before separating the two halves of the casting, Stevie milled both sides with flat references, but not anywhere else.

Would it be wise to mill reference surfaces, horizontal and vertical, pretty much all over the piece before cutting in half?

Hello Andrew. I also wanted to use the TS light vertical, but there was a tad less room than i would have liked. My fault as i fitted the Z axis drive & that lost me around 1 1/2" of height. If i had not wanted to use a long series drill it would have been fine. The lathe method was quite easy to set up once i got my head into gear. My only wish is that i had not used a long series drill to plunge all the way through the 2 axis. Re fixing to the bed 4 times i think would have been better. The long drill did wonder a little.

I did not machine the 4 sides before hand because there was very little wiggle room in those castings. If they had been a little bigger all round , there would have been room do do as you suggest. I still think machining the back face was an advantage because it gave me a reference for all the measurements if that makes sense.

I can only assume your castings will be the same & i struggled to get the dimensions shown on the drawings.

Don't get me wrong it is just a comment & if i had known this beforehand i would still build the kit.

As you will have seen it turned out very well. Not perfect by any means. I have used it twice already & amazing as i have never needed one before. I only built it to do the YouTube video's of the build. I probably spent more time thinking than doing. But at least that minimises some silly mistakes, of which i still make (A little).

Don't hesitate if you need any more info. Also surely some other forum members will have built this item & could give you comments or info on there build.

Steve.

I made one of these recently. It was from an old casting from Ivan Law,I think,but I’m sure the new ones are the same. I cut it in half first of all and only gave the back faces a bit of a rub on wet and dry on a flat surface,that’s all it needed.

Then made the hinge using a 1/4” s&f cutter on the vertical mill, cut very nicely,then treated it as one piece. I clamped it to a n angle plate to drill the holes for the fingers,one at a time of course.

Ok, thanks. I’ve gone ahead and put flats all over it, so time will tell if it was worth bothering. Since I’m a bit lacking in experience I thought it might help.

I am slowly building one, it’s about number ten in the priority list, getting locos ready for this season is top priority, but I would certainly recommend facing both sides and cleaning up the outer edges before cutting in half. The casting will never be to drawing, it was underside when cast same as the bar stock, mine is all cut dead length or slightly short, I have purchased a fair few Hemmingway kits over the years and the raw material in all of them is short to start with, I put it down to the fact that I live in the south and perhaps our inches are a bit longer than inches north of the M4 motorway. One thing I shall certainly do with my fixed steady is to make some decent adjustment screws, the bit of M6 studding I got in my kit is absolutely disgusting. I shall screwcut some 1/4 dia stainless 26 or 32 tpi, haven’t decided which yet.

I did not find an stock short in size other than the actual casting. But did use stainless M6 for the adjusters etc. The fingers i used some Phosphur bronze to make. But only because i had some. Probably nothing wrong with the Brass supplied.

I did make the sensitive knurling tool & the stock supplied with that was just enough.

Steve.

I built the Hemingway steady for my 254+ , didn't have any issues apart from as Baz says above the terrible zinc plated M6 studding that was rusty and corroded when I opened the kit. Couldn't believe they would send something like that out, replaced with some M6 stainless studding from Ebay. That aside the steady does work well and the large capacity is a definite plus, used it for the rollers for GHT's bending rolls and it did the job perfectly, also faced off a smokebox tube for a friend that was just within its max capacity, so versatile too.

Edited By Dave Wootton on 13/03/2023 07:42:37

Well, I’ve done the flats, separated the castings, mostly formed the hinge, and turned the fingers.

The casting isn’t big enough to achieve the 1” diameter of the hinge bosses, but I don’t think it really matters. My first time radial milling seemed to go okay (I’ve only owned the mill for a few months).

Not especially happy with the female hinge boss. I was aiming for a 6mm slot, but accepting it might cut oversize (I just machined the male part to fit). The inner sides aren’t very parallel, nor flat-bottomed. After some work with a file, the hinge fits but there is a small amount of play axial to the pin.

Cutter was a longish 6mm Clarkson which came with the machine. I guess the non-flat bottom is down to chipped teeth on the cutter. The non-parallelism is a bit more annoying - I assume the piece was flexing/vibrating.

Should I have gone for an even smaller cutter (5mm?), then stepped over to each side? No DRO, so I was at the mercy of backlash.