Steady rest buttons

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Don't know if this counts as a project but some of the steady rest tips given to forhire on his cyl fix brought it to mind.I wish I would have tried this sooner because I'd seen some very nice work done with hard steady rest buttons found on tool room lathes.Anyway after making a couple of sets from ampco and lasting about a year I tried grade60 iron soaked at wet red heat for a bit and quenched. That was about 15 years ago.In the 70's most of the steady rests I used were roller bearings or bronze pad and each had problems resulting of the use of cloth backed paper or tyvar strips sometimes.Results below;Matt Attached Images
Reply:I forgot to add I think the reason they work well is any any abrasive gets jamed in the part and then just laps the iron instead of scoring the part.Matt
Reply:Great idea. My only experience with roller rests gave me reason to hate them. They would just roll shavings under them and around. I don't know how hard the fingers where on the American Pacemakers we had where I used to work but they hardly showed any wear after many years of service. On the other end the fingers on my old Sidney have been built up more than once with brass.Millermatic 252XMT 304'sDynasty 280DXHypertherm PowerMax 1250Miller Trailblazer 302 EFIOptima PulserXR feeder and XR Edge gun and more athttp://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook/index.htm
Reply:Matt this is interesting. My steady rest has brass or bronze weld build up. They are ugly and well used. I've had the lathe several years and this was the first time I used the steady rest. The hard chromed rod held up ok despite my ignorance. So the buttons are harder than the part being turned? Are they bored to diameter, having a large contact area? Or left as buttons? I could stand to gain some more steady rest experience.My understanding of lapping is that abrasive gets embedded into a soft lap and the abrasive cuts the harder surface. So the grit cuts the steady rest rather than the part which is brilliant (If I followed you).Thanks for your help.
Reply:Originally Posted by forhireMatt this is interesting. My steady rest has brass or bronze weld build up. They are ugly and well used. I've had the lathe several years and this was the first time I used the steady rest. The hard chromed rod held up ok despite my ignorance. So the buttons are harder than the part being turned? Are they bored to diameter, having a large contact area? Or left as buttons? I could stand to gain some more steady rest experience.My understanding of lapping is that abrasive gets embedded into a soft lap and the abrasive cuts the harder surface. So the grit cuts the steady rest rather than the part which is brilliant (If I followed you).Thanks for your help.
Reply:Matt:Thanks for posting this. I just got a lathe after many many years of doing without and I'm a newbie wrt lathes so I'm learning a lot from this site and others.Steady rest usage will be something I will be doing as much of the stuff around the ranch involves shafts of various lengths that need turning.Glenn.Sign on East Texas payphone: Calls to God 40 cents......it's a local call...
Reply:At my previous job, all of the CNC lathes for rough-machining crankshafts used rectangular carbide pads as the contact points on the steady rests.After the journals had been ground though the steady rests were brass, with the lapper/polisher shoes being machined nylon.Last edited by mrjbacon; 06-06-2010 at 03:42 PM.
Reply:I will have to take pics of the homemade ones I have for the Hendy..Brass flat stock.....zap!I am not completely insane..Some parts are missing Professional Driver on a closed course....Do not attempt.Just because I'm a  dumbass don't mean that you can be too.So DON'T try any of this **** l do at home.