Supports for long hollow pieces?

[Charlie Harley]

Does anyone have experience using supports that mount to the bed and support long, hollow turnings with three rollers? I'm in the middle of a project where the outside is pretty much turned to where I want but going deep into the hollow is getting a little hairy. I'd like to have some outside support.

Any particular brands that folks like or don't like? Does anyone have plans for a homemade rig?

All help is much appreciated.

 

[Ken Grunke]

Charlie, what you are looking for is a steady rest. There are four basic designs, that I can think of.
One, a 3-wheel with enclosed frame:
http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/readarticle.pl?dir=turning&file=articles_128.shtml
Two, a 2-wheel open frame, called a bowl steady but useful for spindles.
Three, two horizontal rails on vertical posts, usually threaded rod. The bottom rail has two bearing wheels, top has one. Here's a design by Herm Devries:
http://www.hdv.net/tips/Making a Steady Rest.htm
Four, a friction steady, no wheels--two hinged wooden blades that come together over a spindle, held in a frame bolted to the bed. Our club saw Stuart Batty use one of these a couple weeks ago when he came to Wisconsin. Crude, but effective. If you have Frank Paine's book on woodturning, there is a design in that.

If you do a search for "steady rest" here in the forums, and/or Google, you'll come up with a multitude of ideas.

 

[Dario]

Homemade Steady

I sent you an email and PM with a link to one I posted elsewhere. Not sure if I can/should post the link here.

 

[Richard Baker]

Home Made Steady Rest

Charley,
Here's another home made variety. The cardboard is just to help it show up better in the picture. It's actually used (along with some plastic on the bed) when doing finish work on the lathe. Roller blade wheels are probably better than skate wheels, but skate wheels is/are what I had on hand.