Your recommendations for a Steady Rest?

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Warren White

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Aug 27, 2014
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Livermore, CA
I have a Powermatic 2020 lathe and am interested in your recommendations for a Steady Rest. I have gotten along for a few years without one, but I do see why it might up my game (and keep me safer) to have one.

I have looked at Craft Supplies and a couple of other places, but the reviews are oftentimes slim or non existent. So,I have come to the best place to learn from those with actual experience. I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.
 
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I have a Powermatic 2020 lathe and am interested in your recommendations for a Steady Rest. I have gotten along for a few years without one, but I do see why it might up my game (and keep me safer) to have one.

I have looked at Craft Supplies and a couple of other places, but the reviews are oftentimes slim or non existent. So,I have come to the best place to learn from those with actual experience. I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.
What are you looking to do with it? Could make a difference in sizes and strength needed.
 
My primary goal for getting a steady rest was for providing steady support for shaping the ends of closed end pens. Most of the steady rests I had seen seemed much too large for what I was wanting to do, so here is the direction I took.

I bought a 0 to 1" inch, ball bearing, steady rest from Little Machine Shop that was made specifically for mini metal turning lathes. Then I built an adapter plate from hard maple to adapt it to my JET 1221VS lathe. I also had to design and build a different clamping bolt/foot than what came with the unit. It is essentially a surplus foot along with some threaded rod, fender washers and nuts. Later, I modified it by adding some rare earth magnets so that it will stick onto the bottom of the ways on my lathe - not necessary, but it sure makes installation a lot easier.

Along the way I also made a couple of minor changes/additions to the steady rest itself to make it more user friendly for what I intended. I essentially added some compression springs and replaced some nuts with wingnuts to help make the adjustments easier.

I attached a .pdf file that has pictures and descriptions of how it turned out. So far, it has been doing a great job for me.

Dave
 

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