bowl rest vs steady rest?

[Dan Forman]

Seeing Prashun's new thread about his home made bowl rest, I have the following question for those of you who have used both. Does a three or four wheel steady rest give additional, well, steadiness, over and above a two wheeled rest which is focused only on the are directly supporting the gouge? I currently have a OneWay two wheel bowl rest, but am planning to do a vase which will be about 12 or 13" deep and up to 7 or 8" wide, proportions not really worked out yet.

I made a rest similar to Prashun's a while back, though mine mounted to the ways, not a table. I found that it had a fair amount of vibration, but that could have been because mounting to the ways is not as well supported as his solution. I then got the OneWay bowl rest, and used that to do a smallish 6" deep hollow form, but got a fair amount of chatter from the Monster system, so couldn't really tell if the rest was doing it's job.

The piece of walnut I have for the proposed vase has some very interesting figure, so I don't want to take a big chance on something bad happening to it, over and above "operator error" :) So what I'm wondering...should the bowl steady do the job, or will I need the full steady rest for a piece of this size? Thanks for your input.

Dan

[Thom Sturgill]

I often use my steady rest (JN version) for steadying spindle work. For example, I just turned a batch of acorn bird-house ornaments. I had a 2ft long piece of curly maple chucked up that I cut the bodies from. A bowl steady would not work, and at that distance from the head-stock, I needed some support to hollow the bodies. I understand that Jeff is using just movable clamps for the wheel bars, so they can be positioned where-ever you need to avoid the laser.

[Robert McGowen]

Since you already have one, you could do what I do. I caught the One Way steady on sale a while back and bought two of them. I have used them opposite each other, used just one, used them both on the backside of a long piece when sanding, etc. One advantage is that I leave one on the lathe all the time. Just slide it against the headstock and on the backside of the lathe and it never gets in the way when turning, but you can slide it over when needed without removing the tailstock or hollowing rig. You can also clamp a dust hose, light, etc. to the post when you need to. YMMV

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have the Nicol steady rest and love it. Dan I did a 13" vase with it and it held nicely with very little vibration. The one I got from Jeff has the moveable arm so it doesn't interfer with my laser. Well worth it worth it. I also have a bowl steady and would not use it on a vase. Just my preference. Like Robert if you had two it might work ok.