Finally finished machining the parts I needed for my 13″ South Bend steady rest.
Source
I made a bolt. And it cost me nothing.
I made a bolt. And it cost me nothing. Except for the thousands of dollars I spent on machine tools and welders and the hour to make it. So practically free. 😉
Single point threading a 5/18-11 bolt for the steady rest.
Single point threading a 5/18-11 bolt for the steady rest. No thread relief. Tried the old “disengage the half nuts and retract the cross slide at the same time” dance for the first time. Nerve wracking.
This won’t win me any awards
This won’t win me any awards, but the bed clamp for the South Bend steady rest is done! This journey of learning to be a hobby machinist is so much fun. I’ve watched enough videos of the real deal that I figured I could put some of what I gleaned to use and this is one of those results. If all goes well, I’ll have the video for this posted at my normal time tomorrow at 11:00am Eastern time. I have another on the K&T all ready to go just in case I can’t get it done. It’s amazing how long it can take to whittle 6 hours of footage (12 hours if you count the second camera) into a 20-25 minute video! Fingers crossed! 🤞🏻
Making the last big piece for the steady rest for my South Bend lathe.
Making the last big piece for the steady rest for my South Bend lathe. I’ll use the shaper to get this part to size then do all of the milling on the Bridgeport. Check out my YT channel for the build videos.
Finished the lathe work on the steady rest knobs for the 13″ South Bend lathe.
Back at making the missing parts for my steady rest.
Back at making the missing parts for my steady rest. I need a threaded arbor now to machine the external features on the adjustment knobs.
I bought about half of a steady rest for my South Bend 13″ lathe.
I bought about half if a steady rest for my South Bend 13″ lathe. It’s missing quite a few parts. Instead of sourcing replacements online, I decided to make all of the pieces I could.
Tell me you had a great day in the shop without telling me you had a great day i
Tell me you had a great day in the shop without telling me you had a great day in the shop.
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I haven’t quite decided if this is where these machines will live permanently.
I haven’t quite decided if this is where these machines will live permanently. But here is where they will be for a while.
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