Harold Hall

Workshop Projects

First Page

Do this in stages of about 2mm width producing the recess by repeatedly traversing the part left to right, Photograph 15. Do set the tables X axis stops, as with five arms to make this will speed up the task appreciably, you will of course need to reset one stop for the two shorter arms. It is essential for this that the workpiece end stop is at the right hand end!

Using the same setup, but now with a 5mm cutter, produce the slots, Photograph 16. Next, add a fence at an angle of 60° together with a workpiece end stop for machining the chamfers on the arm's ends, Photograph 17. With five arms and four chamfers on each this certainly made the process an easy one. The end stop did of course require to be repositioned between the longer and shorter arms.

The Washers

This just leaves the washers to be made though standard commercial washers could be used if the readers wishes to reduce the work involved in making the steadies. With that in mind, just three arms could be made and shared between the two steadies.

The Travelling Steady

For this I have used an alternative method that does not require the use of a rotary table and as I anticipate that few workshops will have one it will be for the majority the method to use. It can then also be used for making the fixed steady.

Cut a piece of steel just over 120mm long and machine the ends, the lower end being particularly important as the rest stands on this. A recess then needs to be made to enable the screw to enter the hole for securing it to the lathe's saddle. Photograph 18 shows the method I used using a small end mill to produce the recess rather than machining away all the material. As I have both X and Y axis stops the task was very easy and quick.

Back in photograph 12 I showed the pieces that came from the centre of the fixed steady and it can now be seen that I have, by the addition of a jacking screw, made them into useful workpiece clamps. I did mention that the viewer may like to change the hole diameter produced for locating the assembly (8.2mm), the reason being to suit the clamp stud diameter that they use, M8 in my case.