which steady?

[mick70Participant @mick70]

got a bit of extra money for tooling after doing a weigh in.

so thinking of getting steady for lathe.

which to get first, travelling or fixed?

planning on doing screwcutting so i can make bits for my unimat sl.

cheers

[mick70Participant @mick70]

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Unless your thinking of machining long shafts / threads then I would start off with a fixed steady… did you not get a pair of steadies with your Unimat when you bought it, or were they 'optional extras'?

George

[mick70Participant @mick70]

the steadies are for my clarke cl430 sorry should have said.

the unimat was going in bin as wire was cut off and only had drill chuck with it.

no spring or handle.

chuck for lathe is missing as well as spindle from tail stock.

rewired motor and it works, so now want to make other bits for it.

my 6yr old girl as claimed for her as it's her size.

[IanTParticipant @iant]

In my view NB – the fixed steady is probably the most useful of the two generally – especially if you have a smaller lathe – as it lets you work outsized material that you cannot pass through the mandrel and that cannot be supported by the tailstock centre for whatever reason. I use mine on the S7 very occasionally

Having said that – you've mentioned screw cutting and the moving steady would be very useful if you needed to machine longer, thinner screw cut work (if that's what you are intending?). I purchased one for my S7 some years ago – discovered it was c*** in terms of fit but have never had the need to sort the problem out (so far). I have used a combined guide and tool holder (Chronos used to sell them) to turn some thinner work which has been more useful for the kind of stuff I generally do.

So I guess the best answer is it depends on the type of work you are most likely to do and also to some extent on the size of lathe you have. I'm not sure either would be very high up my list of essentials (I love ER collects for instance!)

Regards,

IanT

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

You can make a fixed steady out of wood. Because by its nature it is adjustable you can take out any build errors.

Use the spare money for material to make tools like tailstock die holder.

I take it this "the unimat was going in bin as wire was cut off and only had drill chuck with it." was written by your wife while you weren't looking. A model engineer only puts plastic food wrap and oily loo roll in the bin (as using it to light the fire contaminates wood ash). Everythng else will come in handy some day.

[mick70Participant @mick70]

Posted by Bazyle on 04/04/2015 11:15:44:

You can make a fixed steady out of wood. Because by its nature it is adjustable you can take out any build errors.

Use the spare money for material to make tools like tailstock die holder.

I take it this "the unimat was going in bin as wire was cut off and only had drill chuck with it." was written by your wife while you weren't looking. A model engineer only puts plastic food wrap and oily loo roll in the bin (as using it to light the fire contaminates wood ash). Everythng else will come in handy some day.

no it was somebody who was binning loads of bits.

[Author]

Posts