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A woodworking question

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John Coates20/03/2011 17:57:59
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I needed to make a fixed steady for my lathe. I had already bought one and today made up a wooden structure to fix it to the round bars of the lathe bed. Now everything has gone well with no major catastrophes (which is a first for me). Luckily I did what I planned and made it slightly oversize so I can fine tune it
 
Now I need some advice as to how to take off millimetres off the oversize wood to get it to be accurate and at centre height. So far I have used a coping saw, a jigsaw, a rasp and sandpaper. Will these tools be sufficient to accurately reduce a section about 18mm by 80mm. My main problem is maintaining a flat parallel surface so the steady remains true.
 
My initial thoughts were to use sandpaper and a sanding block but this tends to produce a rounded hillock type result due to my technique.
 
What should I be doing and how should I be doing it?
 
Thanks
 
John
Peter Tucker20/03/2011 18:59:34
185 forum posts
Hi John,
 
Can not quite envision what you are trying to do but I would sugest you use a plane to adjust the timber to size.
 
Hope this helps.
 
Good luck.
 
Peter.
JasonB20/03/2011 19:01:12
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Are you trying to enlarge the holes ar reduce a flat surface?
 
Its easy enough to mill or flycut timber if you want to take a small amount off accurately without woodworking tools. Similarly you could use a boring head/bar if its the hole that needs working on
 
J
Les Jones 120/03/2011 19:05:44
2292 forum posts
159 photos
Hi John,
I am assuming that the fixing for the steady consists of a piece of wood clamped on top of the bars of your lathe bed at right angles to it. I also assume it is the top face of this piece of wood you need to produce a flat surface on. If you have a router I would suggest using this in the following way. Find two pieces of wood or other material of the same thickness and rest them across the bars of your lathe either side of the support for the steady. The top surface of these parallels should be a little above the surface of the steady support. Now find a piece of plastic coated chipboard and drill a hole in it so you can screw your router to it with the cutter protruding trough the hole. You should be able to rest this board on the parallels and be able to slide it around with the router cutter passing over the
steady support . If you set the height of the router so that the cutter is just below the height of the steady support and slide the board with the router on backwards and forwards working across the surface you want to reduce it should produce a reasonably flat surface.
I would not recommend taking much more than about 1 mm off each pass. The centre height of the steady should not be to critical as they have adjustable fingers.
 
Les.
 
 
John Coates20/03/2011 21:58:22
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Thanks chaps
 
Les - yes that's it. Imagine two bars 4.5" apart. A vertical piece of wood sits between them with a flat piece above and below. This clamps the steady to the bar bed. I am then making up the wood between the top of this and the bottom of the steady. This is the piece,lets call it the upright, that I need to reduce and maintain squareness. I don't have a router, just saws, chisels, a jigsaw and pillar drill for woodwork.
 
Jason - I did think of using the mill but thought it would rip the wood to bits. Its not a hardwood so would splinter and disintegrate
 
I think I'm going to try putting the upright in my vice (with protective ally angle iron over the jaws) with a little bit projecting above and then square this up. Using an electric planer or sander (borrowed) I will take off a little at a time until the necessary amount is removed. The wood had two end stops which precluded this but one of those gave way tonight (see I knew there would be a cock up somewhere along the way, there always is) so I now have a flat surface to work on. My main aim is to keep it all square and sawing left a few wavy surfaces that I am now trying to true up and keep square
Terryd20/03/2011 22:03:15
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Hi John,
 
A simple photo would help, even one from a cell phone.
 
Regards
 
Terry
John Coates20/03/2011 22:11:05
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558 forum posts
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Hi Terry
 
Here it is:
 

 
John Coates20/03/2011 22:18:48
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558 forum posts
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It only needs to come down about 4-5mm to put that bar in the centre of the steady
 
The reason for my need can just be seen in the background - my motorcycle (silver tank, white race fairing). I sold the race wheels that were on it and can't find the spacers for the OEM wheels. Hence I'm making them.
 
Imagine a top hat with a bore. The brim of the hat is 48mm dia with the main part 40mm dia with the bore for the spindle at 25mm dia. What you can see in the photo is the end of the 40mm dia which now has to be bored out. Once done the spacer will be parted off behind the "brim"
 
Nicholas Farr20/03/2011 23:02:50
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Hi john, I would have though a router bit in your mill would do the job, and shouldn't rip your wood to bits.
 
Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 20/03/2011 23:04:18

JasonB21/03/2011 07:17:36
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Actually on softer woods its best to use a carbide upcut spiral cutter to get a better finish than TCT router bits. You can get quite close to this shape of cutter with a standard HSS endmill run at a high speed, climb cutting would also be acceptable if you do get tearout.
 
Jason
John Coates21/03/2011 12:10:44
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558 forum posts
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Nicholas and Jason - a chap at work is going to lend me his set of router bits and I have my endmills so to the miling machine it is ! Hopefully Weds night when I get back from a business trip, if not then after that.
 
The timber is the planed stuff bought from Wickes for fence rails (left over from a fence repair). The idea is that the wooden jobbie gets me up and running to sort the motorbike out (OK if we're being pedantic about it then yes, it is a bodge) then at a later date I can design and build in metal a more permanent solution.
 
here's to bodging!
KWIL21/03/2011 12:26:58
3681 forum posts
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Real bodgers make chair parts, I suppose you could call this a steady chair, hope it does not fall over.
Nicholas Farr21/03/2011 12:53:41
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Hi John, I think a bodge job is one that never intends to be improved. You could put yours under the banner of research and development.
 
Regards Nick.
John Coates21/03/2011 13:19:04
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Definitely R&D then
 
The thought of one of my first major bits of design and manufacture being a base for the fixed steady which will then help with a new base for the tailstock (broke locking lug, want it further forward into a gap in the saddle, want indexing on the tailstock) gives me goosebumps. The starting bit of metal will be big (well defintiely for the tailstock base) as the bars are 1.5" dia and 4.5" apart requiring quite a bit of accurate (for a newbie like me) metal removal
 
Oh well I guess jumping in at the deep end as opposed to mincing about on the shoreline dipping toes in the water should make a metal basher out of me !

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