Have been through this with an EW lathe. I am afraid you have a vanishingly small probability of acquiring an original item at any price.

Your options are

• to fabricate one from scratch – much the cheapest option
• to adapt one to fit from a similar sized machine (say Cowels or more realistically one of the ubiquitous small Chinese lathes C0, C1, C2/3, small Proxon, Peatol etc class of machine

suppliers include M-Machine metals for material , Arc, Cowels, Axminster,  on line markets, etc.

Edited By Martin of Wick on 16/12/2020 12:21:25

I made two for the museums Smart & Brown model A, the genuine ones on ebay are stupidly expensive. The first was a little Chinese one with a 50mm bore mounted on an aluminium adaptor which fits the lathe bed and sets the centre of the bore on the spindle axis. The second one is a bigger hinged one with a bore of about 3 1/2", also with an aluminium base. I made a set of roller ends for it, so there is a choice in addition to the original bronze fingers. The bigger one can fit either side of the base centre line for greater versatility. Of course, I was lucky to have a mill to do the work with.

There is a wonderful design here: **LINK**

http://wwlathetools.blogspot.com/2014/04/step-1-imagining-ww-lathe-steady-rest.html

… intended for a WW lathe, but surely adaptable.

MichaelG.

If the lathe has a dovetail bed, there is the risk of pulling things slightly off centre when clamping up the base. But adjusting the three steady feet should accommodate that.

In the past, I made a Saddle Stop for a dovetail bed Myford ML4, so something using that as a base could be a starting point

Possibly a dovetail base to carry a modified steady, that is available, from a lathe of similar size?

There have been articles, at various times, in MEW about making fixed steadies for various lathes. So maybe, adjusting the scale of one of these designs, to fit the lathe and the different mounting foot, may be the way to go.

Howard

When I had a Flexispeed, I designed and 3d-printed a fixed steady with brass fingers. It was a prototype, meant to be replaced by a cast aluminium version. However, gven the size of work I was doing on the lathe, it was reasonably sturdy and I never got round to replacing it. I sold it with the lathe earlier this year. I'll try to find a picture. I'd be happy to send the stl file if that would help.

smf is the handle printed too? I'm guessing it is in the style of the flexispeed. Perhaps you could put the file for the steady on Thingiverse then in the future internet searches would either find this thread or that entry.

I didn't see a picture of a Flxeispeed steady on the Lathes.co.uk site so did they ever make one or did I miss the aspect that the OP was looking for a compatible one from one of the later clones?

Edited By Bazyle on 17/12/2020 19:18:16

Bazyle – the handles in the photo were the original handles – a previous owner had replaced them on the lathe with some aluminium ones.