I've had my old Hercus lathe for about 38 years. When I got it ,the only accessories were a 3 jaw chuck and a full set of gears.
Over the years I've collected or made face plates,4 way tool posts and assorted chucks, fixed steady and some tooling. It's become a usefull thing.
The one thing I always wanted was a travelling steady and as everyone knows, they are abundant and inexpensive. I could never bring my generous Scottish self to part with so many shekels for such a small thing
So about a month ago I decided to make one
I started by making a wooden model to give me some dimensions
I wanted to make it from steel, namely 1/2" and 3/4" plate. I scrounged the 1/2" from the shed and the 3/4" from Mick Moyles in Sydney together with some brass bar for the support pads.
A bit of time with a bandsaw, MIG, and drill got the thing into shape. I bolted it onto the saddle and used tailstock centre and centre drill to mark centre on both sides of the 3/4" plate upright, then marked out maximum working clearance area to be removed as well as horizontal and vertical axis for drilling of support pad screwed holes. I drilled and tapped those holes for 3/8 UNF thread
The removal of the waste from the 3/4 plate was an adventure as I don't own a mill It was a character building exercise using a 5" grinder ,drill, hammer and chisel and not to forget the dear old file (minus handle).
However it's done , bar a little bit of welding.
It is hardly a stylish thing but it is strong and will allow work of up to 42mm to pass through.
I commend it to your sense of humour
Alan
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