traveling steady and hone

[graffian]

I used my traveling steady for the first time. I was turning down 1/2" bar to make 7/16" and 3/8" spindles for some thing, I wanted to have 10" bit's of stock to make the spindles from.
I have used blocks of metal in the rear toolpost as steadies before and I tried it to do this, but the bar welded it self to the block of metal.
So I tried the traveling steady, it didn't work, so I added a third block to the steady. They usually have just two rubbing blocks, one above and one behind the bar your turning down. I put another rubbing block at the front angled up[sort of at 7:30], it prevent's the bar moving around, my first go the bar rattled about and it was pretty messy.
I messed up a few bit's to start with, then managed 8 lengths of steel, I held the size within half a thou on 4 of them and the other 4 were oversize.
I had intended on having them ground and chromed, so I left a few thou over size as I had no idea how much the grinder would want to grind off them, but I am going to try some as they are.
I bought a Delapena external hone ages ago and had never used it.
I tried honing one of the oversize spindles, quiet easy to get the spindles
parallel[so you can't see any error with a mic] and I had no problem sizing them.
I took about 2 thou of the spindles and corrected the errors.
So external hone is an excellent bit of kit, I honed the spindles with them in my pillar drill and I used some diesel/petrol as lubricant, bit messy. I have no idea of the speeds you should hone at or the correct lubricant.
The turned finish was pretty good. The honed finish is probably finer then the ground finish on silver steel you buy. The hone would be really easy to make.

 

[penfold]

What are the rubbing blocks made of? Presumably it's a fine abrasive, but is it soft or hard?

 

[graffian]

What are the rubbing blocks made of? Presumably it's a fine abrasive, but is it soft or hard?

Do you mean the blocks that are on the opposite side to the honing stones? The blocks are plain aluminum blocks.
If you mean the stones for the hone? Each size has three stones, coarse, medium and fine, the two next to the box and the one in the holder are the set I used for the 3/8" diameter spindles. They seem much the same as the stones you get with cylinder de-glazers. The bars in the box are for correcting/truing the stones I think, I have no idea how that works.
The hone kit is for 7/16"-1/2" and three other larger sizes. For 3/8" I put a couple of shims behind the 9/16"-5/8" stones and used the rubbing ali block from the 7/16"-1/2" set. Anyway it seemed to do the job pretty well. It's not a quick way of removing metal, takes a while to remove a tenth of a thou, but you can remove as little as you want and correcting taper is easy.
Anyone got any small abrasive sticks I have several holders than need new abrasive sticks?
Simple bit of kit, I had never seen before. I will probably find they are quite common now;-)

 

[brightspark]

Do you mean the blocks that are on the opposite side to the honing stones? The blocks are plain aluminum blocks.
If you mean the stones for the hone? Each size has three stones, coarse, medium and fine, the two next to the box and the one in the holder are the set I used for the 3/8" diameter spindles. They seem much the same as the stones you get with cylinder de-glazers. The bars in the box are for correcting/truing the stones I think, I have no idea how that works.
The hone kit is for 7/16"-1/2" and three other larger sizes. For 3/8" I put a couple of shims behind the 9/16"-5/8" stones and used the rubbing ali block from the 7/16"-1/2" set. Anyway it seemed to do the job pretty well. It's not a quick way of removing metal, takes a while to remove a tenth of a thou, but you can remove as little as you want and correcting taper is easy.
Anyone got any small abrasive sticks I have several holders than need new abrasive sticks?
Simple bit of kit, I had never seen before. I will probably find they are quite common now;-)

make your own out of aluminium and use lapping paste on them

 

[MrFluffy]

Delapena are still in business in the uk, but I dont think they supply the external hones anymore, they may do the abrasives still however :-
http://www.delapena.co.uk/

Sounds like a good application for some die finishing stones if you knock up appropriate holders.
http://www.borideabrasives.com/category.php?cat=103

Is there a slot for a small industrial diamond in the truing bars?
I'd think you mount something hard in the bar then put it between centres and run the hone over it to true up the stone in the correct plane, the equivalent running a diamond past the wheel on a grinder. The standard diamonds aren't expensive (fiver for chinese, 20-30 quid upwards for a decent one) and usually fit a standard sized mount.