Setting up a fixed steady.

The standard method is to put your round bar in an accurate 3 jaw chuck (if not accurate, then use an independent 4 jaw) Adjust until the free end is running true and then very carefully adjust supports on the fixed steady and job done.

This is fine for an 8" length of 3/4" diameter bar. However I am trying to set up a 10" long bar of 3" diameter material.. Trying to adjust this on an ML10 is far more daunting! In fact I gave up trying after a fruitless 20m minutes. Having such a large unsupported lump, also struck me as a possible accident in the making.

Ideally if one can centre both ends with a centre drill, you can support the rod between centres. Then the setting up of the fixed steady is easy. I can accurately mark the centres and even centre punch them! But how to centre drill both ends? My mill is in pieces at the moment, so I just have the ML10 and a rough old Chinese drill press.

I am sure I am missing something obvious, so how would you set up the fixed steady for this job.

Thanks,

Andrew.

Edited By Andrew Tinsley on 27/06/2023 19:11:45

Tailstock 3-jaw chuck to hold bar while you adjust steady.

Blank arbor in tailstock. Centre drill in headstock. Hold bar in left hand. Wind tailstock handwheel with right hand.

Stand bar on end and use cordless drill or Stanley eggbeater to put in a centre. This assumes that none of the bar's outer surface is a finished surface.

Loosen baseplate clamp of Chinese drill press. Rotate column so chuck is over edge of bench. That gives maybe three feet of daylight in which you can place the bar to drill it

Measure bar accurately. Turn up stub of wood to same diameter. Set steady to piece of wood near to chuck. Slide steady nearer to tailstock once set.

Use hacksaw and cut small slice off bar. Use to set up steady.

The method I use is...

Put a stub of steel in the 3 jaw chuck and turn it to the required diameter.Slide the steady up up the headstock end of the bed. Clamp it to the bed. Adjust the fingers to the turned diameter. Free the steady from the bed. Slide it to the required position on the right of the bed and reclamp it.

Andrew

Thank you both,

DC31\,k I don't have a tailstock 3 jaw chuck, so that one is out. I really don't fancy trying to use a centre drill in a cordless drill. I am sure to break it! I was toying with the third suggestion of using the drill press with the table swung out of the way, would need suitable vice to hold it but should have one that will do the job. Now the use of a wooden stub the same diameter as the bar sounds better. Your last suggestion is excellent and blindingly obvious, if I had thought of it, which I didn't!

Andrew , thanks, the same as DC31k's last suggestion. Couldn't be simpler. Sometimes I can't see the wood for the trees and this is one such occasion.

Thank you both again,

Andrew.

Thank you both,

DC31\,k I don't have a tailstock 3 jaw chuck, so that one is out. I really don't fancy trying to use a centre drill in a cordless drill. I am sure to break it! I was toying with the third suggestion of using the drill press with the table swung out of the way, would need suitable vice to hold it but should have one that will do the job. Now the use of a wooden stub the same diameter as the bar sounds better. Your last suggestion is excellent and blindingly obvious, if I had thought of it, which I didn't!

Andrew , thanks, the same as DC31k's last suggestion. Couldn't be simpler. Sometimes I can't see the wood for the trees and this is one such occasion.

Thank you both again,

Andrew.

I'd use metal rather than wood for the setting-piece. Wood is just a bit too elastic, and metal will give you a finer reference finish. Otherwise the best way is indeed to set the steady close to the chuck on a true-running piece. (This is the method advised in the Hemingway Kit instructions, where appropriate.)

For holding a long bar endways off the side of a bench or pillar drill table, assuming you have the depth available off the side of the machine, use a large Vee-block or a Keats Angle-plate. Secure the block to the table in its most appropriate way.

If you don't have a big Vee-block or Keats block, you can create a "virtual Vee-block" with a large standard angle-plate with a second angle-plate or a length of bright steel bar clamped to it and squared to be vertical.

Another way, if you are confident that your tailstock is on-axis and you have a decent tailstock tool holder (eg a good drill chuck) is to is to hold the work in the (accurate) 3 -jaw at the headstock, not fully tight, support the other end in the steady and eyeball. Then bring up the tailstock holding a centre drill - it will draw a circle on the facing end unless you got lucky. Adjust the steady until the the circle reduces to a 'point'. Tighten 3-jaw fully, repeat at the other end if necessary. It works for me!

Robin.

My method is to set bar in 3jaw, clamp fixed steady to lathe bed close to the chuck to reduce any possible runout, set fingers ro bar, move and reclamp steady to bed close to tailstock end of bar, reclamp steady on to bar.Tailstock chuck and centre drill end of bar. Release bar and swap around end for end, clamp with 3jaw and steady, centre drill end of bar.Remove steady and use centres to support both ends of bar with a drive dog at the headstock end and proceed with between centres turning. Use of a half centre at the tailstock end, enables facing of the end of the bar.

John