What's stopping the fingers from sliding all the way out? That grub screw on the outer diameter of the steady? If so, remove the grub screw and use just the one in the middle? Maybe put a third grub screw in between the two existing ones to clamp the finger?. You'd have to lose the screwed adjustment, but just set the fingers in position manually and then lock up the grub screws, similar to the way a Myford steady works with its slotted fingers.

Or make shorter fingers. You could probably get away with just a flat down the side instead of that slot for the grub screws to locate in.

Or tap a thread down the bores of the three holes and make threaded fingers like this one:

That puppy is rock solid. Much much more so than the standard puny Myford item. Make the tips from hard bronze so they don't wear flats on there.

Edited By Hopper on 01/07/2019 04:56:46

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Seems an expedient solution for an occasional job

That said: There is obviously an underlying quality problem, so; in the longer term, a full redesign/rebuild would seem appropriate.

MichaelG.

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The bores in the castings are poorly machined – they are mostly either sloppy or too tight. The grubscrews running in the finger keyways which do double duty in preventing the fingers from rotating and locking them are impossible to set to give smooth adjustment even on the fingers where the fit is OK. It's a horror story!

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Not quite what the manual says, if you don't lock them in place they could work loose.

Make a second set of shorter fingers (by 22mm) with new adjusters of appropriate length so that the full range could be used, but needing selection of parts? No more hassle, then, than storing and changing inside or outside chuck jaws.

While at it, make the necessary modifications first (so replacing the existing fingers with new ones that fit the improved bores). You would then at least have a steady which worked reasonably over the whole range possible.

Three simple "L" shaped brackets drilled one end to be held using a screw in the outer grubscrew threaded holes and the short leg of the L long enough to engage in the adjusters slot will move them all out further so you can use them when turning large diameters and no need to alter fingers or adjusters. If you want to improve play then just sleeve the holes and have clearance holes in the sleeves for the inner and outer screws.

Alternative would be a top hat sleeve with a second screw hole further out that the adjuster grub screw could be moved to when doing large work and just use the existing grub screw position for smaller work

That is very similar to the fixed steady I bought to use on the Smart & Brown model A. A base was made to fit the bed of the lathe. The reason I bought it was that original ones cost an arm and a leg. The shortcomings were exactly the same and I shortened the original fingers to allow 100mm stock if required. I also made a set of fingers with sealed ball races to span 14-80mm. It is certainly sturdy enough to be useful. With the use of a mill, making the fingers is easy.

If the original fingers are shortened, they will not reach smaller diameter stock, unless an extension is made for them.