Steady Rest Help

[Michael Faurot]

I'm doing some thin spindles (1/2" - 5/8" diameter) that are about 13" long and have discovered I need a steady rest. I'd like to get the model H5569 (http://www.grizzly.com/products/Steady-Rest-For-Wood-Lathe/H5569) steady rest from Grizzly as I like the price and the way it looks. What I'm not sure of though is if it will fit the bed of my lathe, which is a PSI Turncrafter Pro (http://www.pennstateind.com/store/TCLPRO.html). Does anyone use this combination or know if this combination will work?

Thanks.

[charlie knighton]

usually you need to know the distance between the ways so when you buy the steady rest they will know what receiver nut thingagig to send with your steady rest, see if grizzly knows

[Allen Neighbors]

Michael, I'm not sure if Grizzly sells anything that isn't made for Grizzly tools. But that said, they have always been good to talk to me and explain things about their tool rests, etc., for my dense mind. Give them a call, ask to speak to a tech rep, and tell them the distance between the ways, and the thickness of the ways on your PSI. It might just fit.
Another suggestion is to make your own. I made one to fit my Oneway 1640 out of Baltic Birch plywood, aluminum t-track from Rocklers, and roller blade wheels. It could be modified to fit any lathe, and though mine has 4 wheels, it could be made to have only three, and buying some used wheels of smaller size would make it fit small spindles.
I have a little tutorial about how I made mine, if you want a copy of it, pm me your email address.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

For a simple well working steady you can use on your lathe, you can make one like in this picture, a couple of pieces of UHMW as the bearings and a couple of pieces of wood that you can clamp to the lathe and the UHMW to is all you need, yes a couple of clamps also.
On the grizzly steady, those bearings are pretty rough on your wood, more so than the UHMW

[Cyril Griesbach]

Nice set up, Leo. Thanks for the photo.

[Michael Faurot]

Thanks for the replies. It looks like Woodcraft sells the same steady rest that Grizzly does, so I think I'll just check that one over in person and go from there.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I got the PSI steady. Works good on my Jet Mini, should work for your Mini too. Seems well made, the picture looks a lot smaller that it is. The bearings are pretty good sized. Maybe they're 1.25". They look like skateboard bearings in the picture. But since you're turning small stuff it may be too big. Check it out.

[Larry Marley]

Here is a small steady rest I made for long dowels...

[Michael Faurot]

I went to Woodcraft yesterday to check out their low-end steady rest to see if it would work with my PSI Turncrafter mini lathe. Turns out it won't--for two reasons.

1) The center line on my lathe is 5" and the low-end steady rest is designed for a minimum of a 6" center line.

2) The low-end steady rest will not sit squarely on a mini lathe. My lathe and just about every other mini seems to have a distance of 1-1/4" between the ways on the bed. This device looks like it is designed for a minimum distance of 1-1/2".

I have some projects that need to be done as soon as possible, so I really didn't have time to make my own steady rest. So I wound up getting the Oneway steady rest. I paid more for it, but I got a really massive beast of a tool. For anyone else that needs a steady rest for a mini lathe, the Oneway will work as you can see in the attached pictures.

A few notes for anyone that is contemplating this purchase for use with a mini lathe:


The steady rest does not come with hardware to mount/clamp it to the bed. Instead you have to purchase a seperate kit to match up with the distance between the ways of your bed.
For my mini lathe, and for all the other mini lathes that Woodcraft sells (Jet, Rikon and Delta)--that distance is 1-1/4" and there was no kit available. I don't know if this is because Oneway doesn't make one, Woodcraft doesn't sell them, or the Woodcraft store I shop at didn't have any in stock.
To solve the problem I picked up a 2-1/2" long x 1/2" diameter bolt, 1/2" washer and 1/2" wing-nut from a hardware store.
I then made a wooden disc with a 1/2" hole and chiseled out the shape of the bolt head to fit in the disc.
My clamp works great, is easier to use than what Oneway sells as mine requires no tools to adjust and only cost about $3.50. The Oneway clamp kits are about $14 from Woodcraft and would require using a wrench or socket to adjust.