Steady as she goes

A few days ago, I posted a video on instagram of turning a post for the upcoming rocker class. I ended up getting a lot of comments and questions about my steady rest, so I figured I’d share the details here. Here is another video of the post turning from a different angle.

There are a few obvious things you’ll notice, the steady rest is gravity fed by the wedge in the back, so the wheels stay in contact as the diameter reduces when I cut the area in front of them. Also, it’s mounted solidly to the window sill behind my lathe, rather than on the lathe itself. But I think there are some not so obvious things that make it work.

First, is the stability of the lathe. Mine is rather lightweight, so I have some solid cinder blocks on the stand to add mass. I also have it up against the wall where the floor is more solid, which, even with the 4 inch thick floors at the mill, makes a difference. I also use an anti-vibration belt that can be custom fit and has no memory. And the part no one wants to hear, I keep my tools very sharp and sharpen often, it makes all the difference, especially on the skew, which is the vibration killer.

Then there is the stuff that has more to do with your plan. What you are turning and how you go about it? I’ve found that roughing the whole piece at once, rather than one section at a time is helpful. If you have one area with a small diameter and others with much larger diameters, the small area tends to flex when cutting the larger and can introduce vibration. This can also happen early in the process when roughing out the part, so I am much less aggressive with longer pieces early in the process.

Why am I writing so much about all this non steady rest stuff? Isn’t the steady rest supposed to cure all this? Well, kinda, but it won’t. I find that the good practices I would have in place without the steady rest definitely help me get the best results when using one. On this design, the aspects that make it convenient, also add to the attention needed when using it. Anything with moving parts has more potential for, well, movement. So getting the weight on the wedge correct, and being patient when getting the feel for it is important. I can turn these posts in less than six minutes, but the first one usually takes about 20 while I set up and get used to the feedback. Turning has lots of variables and the extended time tuning in on the first one sets me up to work with speed and accuracy on the rest.

One of the first things you will see me do is to carefully cut a smooth area directly in front of the wheels so that they roll without any bumps will just transfer to the whole piece. The location of the wheels matters as well. Just placing it half way along the work piece may not be the ideal solution, it has more to do with thicks and thins and it might take some experimentation to find the right spot. I also avoid placing it too near where I measure my diameters, it’s just awkward.

In the next post, I’ll show more details about the actual jig as well as some measurement and more videos.