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vtsteam:
I considered milling the slots, but without a rotary table, that would have taken a long time to accomplish on such odd shaped castings. there were no planes to work from, and I'd have needed three odd setups.

Likewise the fingers, being wedge shaped in section, might not have fit well if milled square and flat. I could have made new ones, but this was turning into a major project. I did try to even out the slots with a die grinder, by hand, and I tried the fingers in different positions to get the best fit, and then stamped each one for easier replacement.

But at the end of the day, I decided to put the steady back in the odds and ends box as a total rehab project for another day (and a rotary table).

Instead I decided to use the steady I had made for my Gingery lathe. It needed only a 7/8" riser block. In a half hour before dinner I'd cast one in aluminum. Working fast, I set the crucible full of old sprues in the tiny furnace, turned up the gas, cut a block of pine to the right size, and rammed it up without even applying a finish, and by the time the mould was ready, the metal was hot and ready to pour.

I forgot how nice aluminum is compared to Zamac. It comes out shiny like a new dime. It hardly shrinks at all, by comparison, and the casting comes out mostly sand free. I've thought about this -- Zamac is much more dense, and I believe sand may tend to float in it. Sand doesn't float in aluminum, I don't believe. Aluminum is also so much easier to cut with a hacksaw and file. A pleasure to work with, by comparison.

The shake out:

WeldingRod:
I made a follow rest a while ago using two layers of plasma cut plates. I set things up so that I welded the layers together and then sawed off a section that was keeping all the slots right. For that application I actually wanted the fingers in two different planes, so there were finger slots on both layers. Worked really well!
I, um, might have made two of them because I didn't really understand what a follow rest really needed to look like... the second one worked really well ;-)

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krv3000:
coming a long well that support casting the panted on looks just as bad as these castings from Stuart wood be nice to see you make an engine on that lathe :drool:

tom osselton:
That is a horrid casting you would have thought they’d catch that at the factory.
I never have seen you recondition your sand is it linseed based?

vtsteam:
WR, that sounds interesting. I have a follower rest that I bought at the same time as the steady. But much better casting. Not sure what lathe it went to, but I will probably adapt it some time, if I can. But for now, I need a steady rest. :beer:

Bob, I'm really excited to get going on engines as soon as I get the tailstock and top slide done. Shouldn't be too long now. You've done great stuff with those Stuart castings. Just goes to show you can always make something interesting and perfectly usable out of any kind of metal problem. All you really need is the desire and that can-do attitude. Metal will always yield to a person with determination! :beer:

Tom, funny you should mention my greensand and reconditioning. I just use plain sand and fire clay (and water for non-ferrous casting. Nothing special. The fire clay I can get here (in Vermont) now is called "Hawthorn". Ceramics people use it.

But the funny part is, This is the same greensand I first mixed up in 2002 to build my Gingery lathe. It started out as about 100 lbs, and is now down to 50.

Yup, I've used the same greensand batch for 16 years, and for countless castings, including all of the present lathe, besides the Gingery and accessories.

However, I did think it was getting a little tired lately, so just before I cast the last aluminum riser block above, i added 5 quarts of new sand, and 2 quarts of fire clay. That brought it up in volume some, too. So your question is extremely timely!

I think you really meant, what do I use for liquid -- and that is plain water -- I use a spray bottle to evenly dampen the top surface of the sand, then trowel it under and repeat, until the sand feels right. Then I cast. I go entirely by feel of the sand.

I will say, that it still doesn't feel as good as it used to, and the castings don't look quite as good, so we'll see if this new addition really helps, or whether I should just discard it and start over. I do worry that new sand won't quite be the same as my old standby, and I actually feel a little nostalgic about the old stuff -- seems silly! :lol:

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