Steady rest

[joe marra]

Building a steady rest, any thoughts on what kind of wheels to use (composition)? Thanks

[Dwight Rutherford]

Inline skate wheels work well.

[Steve Doerr]

+1 on skate wheels

[charlie knighton]

you can buy the wheels directly from oneway, made for wood instead of concrete

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Not being a smart guy, but what's the difference? I'm just curious. Found some unused inline skate wheels for 4 bucks at garage sale.

[charlie knighton]

oneway wheels are a rubber type surface, they are not hard rubber......if you put the oneway wheels on skates would not last very long, you get dust from running on lathe with wood

look in the craft supply catalogue for oneway bowl steady.....same wheels....the picture for wheels for spindle rest seem to be different

the oneway wheels have a highpoint in the middle of the wheel and tha wears, the inline and skate wheels are the same height across the wheel and are hard, they will chip on concrete, depending on how tight you put against the form depends what type of marks you get in wood,,,,the oneway wheels are not as hard as the wood

[Doug Herzberg]

I replaced the wear parts on a clothes dryer and those rollers looked about perfect. I got a kit with the drive belt, an idler pulley and 4 rollers for about $25, but I have an account. Not sure what retail would be. Also don't know the hardness of the rubber. The rollers I took out looked good enough to use and they were free!

[Jeffrey J Smith]

If you buy inline skate wheels, look for indoor wheels - these come in three different hardnesses. Wheels labeled 'fitness' are typically outdoor wheels and can work if you look for semi-hard ones. I like the larger 84mm wheels for adult skates in either white or clear urethane. A set is cheap with the bearings and will likely last for a very long time.
Worked well for my steadyrest, and it's been in use for about three years...

[Joe Meirhaeghe]

I'm a heavy user of steady rest, I've turned several hundred plus vessels and used a steady rest on everyone of them. That said I have several different steady rest with different types & hardness's of the wheels. I prefer a very hard flat wheel. I've found softer wheels ad vibration during hollowing. The softness allows them to compress under a load & during a cut, them they expand again when not cutting or under load. Just my 2 cents.

[Joseph M Lary]

Look up Jeff Nicol he has a web page on building one he also make them and parts . He it a creek member you could search for him here . I build mine and I got most of the ideas form his site.

[James Combs]

Become a "contributing" member(as little as $6/yr) of SMC and you can access the Woodworking Articles and Reviews forum. That forum is closed for new entries but not for reading and using the info contained in it. There is a tutorial there on how to build a Jeff Nicol style rest. You have to go to post #21 in the thread to find the actual tutorial, a PDF file. Open the PDF and see if it provides you any help.

As an FYI, current and new articles/tutorials are now found in the "Authors" forum. I believe it has the same "be a contributor" requirement.

[joe marra]

Thank you all.

[Jeffrey J Smith]

Become a "contributing" member(as little as $6/yr) of SMC and you can access the Woodworking Articles and Reviews forum. That forum is closed for new entries but not for reading and using the info contained in it. There is a tutorial there on how to build a Jeff Nicol style rest. You have to go to post #21 in the thread to find the actual tutorial, a PDF file. Open the PDF and see if it provides you any help.

I used James tutorial to build mine - with a couple of modifications - and it is an easy to follow, thorough set of instructions. I did a lot of downloading of articles before building mine and these were easily the most thorough. I'm not a metal worker, and hadn't welded since college days, but this went together like butter. If you plan to build your own, I'd highly reccommend that you get the PDF.