steady rest barrel collar

[rusty]

Many years ago a member sent me plans on makeing a sacrifcial steady rest barrel collar. this was made from square alum. stock ,with center line hole,and 2 socket set cap screws.
plans showed how far off you set of screw holes,after turning to round. then center bored,and cut in to.
collar is paper lined,clamped&screwdown on barrel. put between centers and true cut taked on collar. steady rest in place on collar-cut-crown-etc any work needed to muzzel end. works for me.

does any one have a sent of these plans,or can give me messurments,as my notes have gone missing and need to make some of these.

thank you for your time
rusty

 

[boucher]

Steady rest bushing

Steve Acker in some of his work shows a method that works slicker than anything else. A bushing with an aproximate fit is attached with Bondo which sets in a few minutes. The bbl is set up between centers and the bushing trued.When it is time to remove the bushing it is heated with a butane torch and the Bondo ( Polyester body putty ) flakes right off. This is especilly usefull when you want to refresh a crown. The action can be mounted in the 4-jaw and dead center applied to the existing crown to true the sleeve. Set the steady on the sleeve and have at it. This concept has lots of similar applications that can be used to attach a steady bushing to all most any cross section shape.

 

[WillBird]

I made a split one to use to true actions. One nice thing to do with them is to load them with clover, and lap your steady rest pads to the same radius as the bushing, only takes just a few minutes. Then machine off the lapping compound charged surface (requires a resharp of an HSS tool afterwards).

To lap the steady fingers just apply clover lapping compound to the rotating bushing (with the item between centers still), and snug the clamp screws on the steady pads with them away from the work (not TIGHT just snug)...then use the jack screws to move the steady pads in to just barely rub the bushing, apply a bit of oil, move them all in a bit at a time. Quickly they will be lapped nice and smooth and to the proper radius so they do not "slap" on the split in your bushing.

Bill