Lathe steady

Some time ago I showed a lathe steady at the club which was made from 18mm plywood and upcycled roller blade wheels. It’s a really useful jig to have in the workshop. I went to a boot fair one Sunday morning and found some good quality roller blade boots that had seen better days but had good wheels with little wear and tight bearings and got them for £3 as I recall. I was only interested in the wheels so discarded the boots. A little bit of measuring and looking at similar home-made steadies on Pinterest, I made my steady to match the centre height above my lathe bed. Have a look at the pictures showing the steady in situ with a long modern style candlestick which I needed to support while I hollowed out the end.

It worked perfectly having centred everything up and because the wheels are all bearing mounted, the jig was able to support quite high lathe speeds with no vibration, wobble or overheating. As always with home-nade jigs, great care and attention must be given at all times and to ensure that it is at 90 degrees to the lathe bed. Use non-agressive cuts to prevent undue lateral stress. The support arms accomodate quite large pieces (at slower speeds of course) and lock into place with wing and star nuts. The support circles are simply a double layer of ply with slots cut across one layer so that the arm cannot swing out of line. Once hollowed, the end is supported by the tailstock with a wooden cone  to finish the article.

Ted Higgs