Steady Rest For Long Spindles

[wassaw998]

I am making a small hall table and decided instead of just tapering the legs to turn them, nothing fancy, just a simple turned taper. The wood is Ash, legs are right at 33 1/4", and the raw size was 1 1/2" square, so turning that size down a bit. I am getting horrid vibration, esp. in the center of the leg. This is the first time I've turned anything this long. Am I hosing up and doing something wrong, or is this common on a long and somewhat thin spindle item, and the solution is a steady rest type deal? I'm starting to regret not just cutting a taper on the table saw !

[Jim Boyd]

Yep! Common and a steady rest is a common solution. Do a google search and you can find some you can make cheaply.

[Tom Miller]

I made this one a while back -- wanted something that could go on and off easily without disturbing the turning. It's not quite finished; I plan to replace the clamps with additional hardware, but you get the idea.










Regards,
Tom

[tribalwind]

tom's got summa the kewlest simple jigs

i like this alot more than some of the fancy ones ive seen! ,
easy on easy off,and id guess the clamp gives you nice tight contact.!

[Tom Miller]

tom's got summa the kewlest simple jigs

I try to stay simple-minded....

id guess the clamp gives you nice tight contact.!

That's one of the nice things about this setup -- you can set the desired contact pressure, and then clamp the thing down to the bed. So setting the pressure doesn't skew your alignment.

The wheels I have on this thing are way too spongy, though. I didn't have a good feel at the time for what I wanted. Some folks, I think, just use straight bearings for spindles, but that seems a little too hard a surface.

Regards,
Tom

[wassaw998]

Yea, I like simple too - thanks for the post. Only question I have is where's your banjo !

[Tom Miller]

Only question I have is where's your banjo !

Oh, that banjo -- I thought you were making a "Deliverance" reference.

Uh, yeah, although it was pulled out of the way for the photo, it'd go on the left side in the setup shown. Or, you could flip the steady 180 degrees and put the banjo on the right, taking advantage of the easy-on easy-off. Actually, what I'd do first is reduce the footprint of the parts, replace the kludged clamping with fixture hardware, etc. etc.

Regards,
Tom