I was reading a woodworking blog recently, sadly I cannot remember which one, the essence of the post was that we spend too much time planning and thinking about tasks. I am certainly guilty of this. A case in point are the attached images. I was going to make a lathe steady so that I could make some pepper grinders at home.I planned looked at YouTube videos bought some roller blade wheels. Then deciding if I should make the frame in wood or steel, in the end it all got too much.
The I saw a cheap lathe steady on a website only $29 so I bought it. It was the right height but didn’t fit the width of the bed of my Woodfast Midi Lathe. Again I resorted to the thinking process. It’s a bit like doing virtual experiments! In the end I had a good look at the lather steady and realise that I had magnified the problem.
It took a scribe, a square and an angle grinder along with 10 minutes to modify the base of the lathe steady. No other mods required. What’s more I have had it for about six months all the time thinking…….