Hi Keith, looks to me the fixing holes are in the wrong place on the steady.

If you remove the fixing screw closest to the operator and swivel the steady until the top finger is vertical to the lathe bed it may then also be on the centre line, also the back finger needs to be on work centre.

If that is the case you could redrill the steady for the fixing screw removed, you may have to plug the original hole for security of the steady.

Emgee

Would It be possible to fit approximately 10 mm sandwich plate and not to use the original erroneous screw locations but make new ones furher away (and possibly Low Hex Head Screws or countersunk head screws)?

Maybe you need to make back fixing point trough the steady and sandwich plate, maybe there is enough space outside of the fixed steady?

This would allow to fix this steady to to sandwich plate first and then make fresh start for new fixing screws. Allows using the new (better and more locating postitions) for mounting and removing the fixed steady and allows better location fixing for news holes. I would put good size arbour between chuck and tail stock, locate steady fingers to near ideal places, CA glue the steady onto cross slide and then mark location for fresh screws.

Downside is that a sandwich plate moves the fingers away from the cutting tool, sometimes it is problem, sometimes not really that much.

Looks like the wrong steady or a badly drilled apron.

I would mill an inch wide flat across the holes to the depth of the counter-bore. Slot the holes to let the steady slide forwards into alignment and make a clamp plate to span the slots.

Before doing that, or lacking milling facilities, I would clamp it up with the front bolt only and see if it will rotate into a suitable position. If it does, re-drill the back hole further inboard.

Neil – wouldn’t a hole higher up the steady move it towards the lead screw not away??

For a simpler repair approach the top finger could be removed, built up on the front side with weld, then ground to an appropriate shape with the tip on vertical centre.

Or you could make a set of fingers with ball bearings instead of direct contact fingers – and place the pivot holes for the bearings at correct positions.

Just food for thought.

Good point. It's clearly fubared….

Neil

If you reposition the front hole using your mill, it would be better if it and the counterbore were bigger and a custom screw were made. Or a stepped bush, perhaps. As already mentioned, use a small diameter test bar in the chuck or tailstock to get a more accurate visual idea of when both fingers are aligned. If the centre lines can be got within 1mm, you should be good to go.