Those of you who have been following my DTC will have heard me muttering about having problems with my Cowells travelling steady and it not supporting the work properly
. Today I decided to make a replacement based on a really simple design I have been using on my Hobbymat
.
The problem with the original support it that the rear finger is not parallel and the two pointed ends of the fingers will not come close enough to support the really small stuff that I often find myself machining. This is the original Cowells travelling steady alongside my Hobbymat L shaped steady and the bit of scrap which I am using to make the new one:
The outline drawing for the steady is simply copying the original but without the hook at the top that can get in the way whilst you are working
:
So first job hacksaw out the wanted part:
Mill and fettle the aluminium to shape, then drill the new 5mm mounting hole. The hole is offset from the side of the steady by 4mm, rather than on the centre line to allow me to use thicker material for the steady and to allow clearance not to hit the cross slide:
The supporting finger was then taken out of a old mains earth plug pin which had a 4mm slot milled down the centre. Then the new steady drilled was tapped 4mm for an Allen screw. I know two screw would be more secure than one but the type of forces involved a second is not needed and restricts movement and hence what you can do with the fingers to steady the work. So an hour later here we have a new steady:
Back to hunting for the knocking on the DTC
.
Jo