Like A Magic 3rd Hand!!

Stuart Ablett

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Tokyo Japan
I'd been debating getting one of these for quite some time, I even tried to make one a while back, but I could not source wheels that were good enough, so I finally broke down and bought one.........

bowl_steady_450px.jpg


... the OneWay bowl steady. :D

I have real trouble with the Keyaki, the Red Japanese Elm that I get so much of, it is very very hard wood, and turning anything bigger than an ice cream bowl becomes a very frustrating task.

bowl_steady.JPG
As you can see, the Oneway bowl steady certainly works well.

I should have bought this a LONG time ago... :rolleyes:

:wave:
 
I understand your appreciation for the One Way bowl steady. I've got a pair of 'em don't regret the purchase at all.
 
The instruction manual that came with is rather minimal, I guess you set it up so the locking collar on the head is about the center point of the headstock, you then place the bowl steady close to the bowl so the wheels just about touch, lightly squeeze the handles together until the wheels contact the bowl. I would guess you want some pressure against the bowl, but not too much......

Does that sound about right?

The reason I ask is that the wheels wore down a bit when I used the steady, might be the very high silica content and the extra toothy grain of this wood, but I was a bit surprised to see the wear, and the plastic on the outside of the bowl.

Two of them eh?

Why not get one of those surround ones, I know it would not fit on my lathe where it sits now, so it is a no go for me, but your lathe sits in the middle of your shop...?

Cheers!
 
Hi Stu.

I'm no expert at all and no turner as well, but I guess that the wear on the wheels might be due to the fact of setting them not really tangent on a line on the bowl.

The bowl is conical and the wheels are rounded section, if one part of the wheel is touching and another part of the same wheel is touching a few millimiters or even a half one lower on the diameter, that point of contact should spin faster than the outer one. As they belong to the same wheel you get wear.

I don't know if I've explained it well, or wether I'm right or wrong but that's the only explanation I can think of.
Maybe someone more knowledgeable than me in mechanics can give a better explanation.:dunno:
 
Hi Stu.

I'm no expert at all and no turner as well, but I guess that the wear on the wheels might be due to the fact of setting them not really tangent on a line on the bowl.

The bowl is conical and the wheels are rounded section, if one part of the wheel is touching and another part of the same wheel is touching a few millimiters or even a half one lower on the diameter, that point of contact should spin faster than the outer one. As they belong to the same wheel you get wear.

I don't know if I've explained it well, or wether I'm right or wrong but that's the only explanation I can think of.
Maybe someone more knowledgeable than me in mechanics can give a better explanation.:dunno:

Toni, I do understand what you are saying and I need to play around with it some more to get a better understanding of how it works, or should work. Like a motorcycle tire, as the bike leans over it changes the actual circumference of the wheel, and added with direction change, causes scrubbing of the tire, I know this from years of riding.

I will take some more pics of it, set up in various configurations to see if I can figure this one out.

I think some wear on the wheels is to be expected. :dunno:
 
The instruction manual that came with is rather minimal, I guess you set it up so the locking collar on the head is about the center point of the headstock, you then place the bowl steady close to the bowl so the wheels just about touch, lightly squeeze the handles together until the wheels contact the bowl. I would guess you want some pressure against the bowl, but not too much......

Does that sound about right?

Yep, that's how I do it. You don't want to squeeze too hard, since that'll push hard enough on the side to throw things out of whack. I've also learned (especially on the 14" or so and larger pieces) that if the bowl has warped at all during turning and is slightly out of round, you want to set the wheels so they are skipping over the low spots instead of rolling through them.

The reason I ask is that the wheels wore down a bit when I used the steady, might be the very high silica content and the extra toothy grain of this wood, but I was a bit surprised to see the wear, and the plastic on the outside of the bowl.

You nailed it when you mentioned "scrubbing" in your later post. I make sure to position the steady so the center "tread" is making contact instead of the sidewalls. One of the beauties of the One Way steady is that you can swivel things around to point the wheels straight at the wood. And you're also right about expecting a little bit of wear, regardless of how it's set up.

Two of them eh?

Why not get one of those surround ones, I know it would not fit on my lathe where it sits now, so it is a no go for me, but your lathe sits in the middle of your shop...?

Two independent 2-wheel steadies seemed more versatile than a single 4-wheel steady...less expensive, too. Probably more than half the time I only use one of them, but having the second one available has been real handy. Also, I can get away from the wheel scrubbing you experienced, since the wheels can be aimed at angles other than 90º to the bed. Lastly, the hoop-style steadies are more likely to get in the way of the laser on the hollowing rig.
 
I have the round type and I am able to change the top roller so I can still get the laser over it ................see below
Just depends what type you have I suppose.
 

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Dan, that is a very nice steady! :thumb:

Here are some pics I took....

bowl_steady_A1.jpg bowl_steady_A2.jpg bowl_steady_A3.jpg
This is how I had the steady set up, it is not perpendicular to the ways of the lathe but to the side of the bowl it is running on.

bowl_steady_B1.jpg bowl_steady_B2.jpg
Here it is set up perpendicular to the ways of the lathe, this would work fine too I think.

bowl_steady_C1.jpg bowl_steady_C2.jpg
This would be an extreme scrubbing set up, I think :dunno:
 
I've seen the equivalent amount of "wheel dust" to your A series pics, and your B series looks like an improvement over that. I agree that the C series is too much scrubbing. When I use mine, I just try to set things up so the wood is running on the centerline of the wheels. The flexibility of the Oneway design lets you point it all sorts of directions to accomplish that.

And I agree Dan's steady is top notch, too. :thumb: Both styles have advantages over the other, but both help get the same end result, too.
 
Nice acquisition Stu:thumb: this has been something i have had on my to do list for a while. However in the spirit of what i have come to label "Stu's" way i was gonna make my own.

To that extent i recently (last 2-3 weeks) salvaged some pretty new wheels off my sons old hardly used roller blades. Got myself 8 wheels with bearings in pretty good nick.

I had even more ambitious project in mind than the one way stand you show. Now i aint so sure if you saw the need to buy rather than make.

You abandoning ship on the make versus buy thing? or was there something here more complex than i am seeing. :dunno: . The one way stand does not look that complicated to make but then the least complex items sometimes have a quirk that makes them look that way till you start.

Dan that looks like a great stand.:thumb:


Besides bowl support i take it these stands could be used to support any item that is being turned on the lathe like say a thin long spindle?
 
Nice acquisition Stu:thumb: this has been something i have had on my to do list for a while. However in the spirit of what i have come to label "Stu's" way i was gonna make my own.

To that extent i recently (last 2-3 weeks) salvaged some pretty new wheels off my sons old hardly used roller blades. Got myself 8 wheels with bearings in pretty good nick.

I had even more ambitious project in mind than the one way stand you show. Now i aint so sure if you saw the need to buy rather than make.

You abandoning ship on the make versus buy thing? or was there something here more complex than i am seeing. :dunno: . The one way stand does not look that complicated to make but then the least complex items sometimes have a quirk that makes them look that way till you start.

Dan that looks like a great stand.:thumb:


Besides bowl support i take it these stands could be used to support any item that is being turned on the lathe like say a thin long spindle?

Rob take a look at >> THIS << thread and see what I did before.

In the end, I had a couple of problems, first was the wheels I had were bushing type, not bearings, and they just had too much run-out or wobble in them, I'm trying to get rid of vibration, not add it. Second the base I made was too thing, it twisted a lot. I could not source a chunk of 1/2" thick steel big enough at a reasonable price. In the end, if I had a machine shop make me up the base and if I bought the wheels online some where, I would have paid more money than just buying this one ready made. I like to make stuff myself, but if it costs more to make an inferior product, well, that is a waste of time. The kicker was the my friend Naoto was in the US at the AAW Symposium, and he took a side trip to the Oneway factory in Canada, he offered to get me one and bring it back, so I got it for a very good price, as shipping on such a heavy item is harsh.

Cheers!

For spindle turning, you need a third wheel, Oneway sells just the head of the tool, I might get one down the road, as I have a mind to make some stools.
 
Thanks for the reminder on that thread. Boy i am getting a bad memory. Now you got me thinking.:huh:

So i have access to cheap chunck of steel. ......solves that problem.
My wheels have bearings .......solves that problem.

I have the benefit of your hindsight to take advantage of and i aint gonna be the welder.:D

So i will still give it a go. What the heck have i got to loose.

My wheels are a little worn though but for my skills a homemade unit will be like a Ferrari and my lathe will think its getting pimped.:)

Added some tags to your previous post so anyone can find it. just search bowl steady.
 
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