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Your cart is empty.Turn and support your long slender spindles while eliminating bowing and vibration. The Stead-Fast Steady Rest adapts to any split bed or double rail midi lathe for ultimate control of delicate spindles. Easy installation. Mounts in the channel of any split bed or double rail lathe. When mounted, it sits 12. 75" high from top of lathe bed. Includes all necessary hardware and wrench. (3) non-marking wheels apply multi-point ball bearing spindle support. Adjustable wheel placement allows for spindle support for workpieces down to 1/2" diameter. Great for lots of woodturning projects like baseball bats, table and chair legs, and other long spindles.
Jordan B
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2024
I'll be honest, this thing is a pain in the neck to use and hasn't really been a value to me in my woodshop. Why? *Cracks knuckles*- It costs 80 dollars. Price-point, I could likely have gone up 20-30 for a much better, more easy to use rest that was just as sturdy, but is (a) easier to set up and (b) doesn't shift around.- It's a pain in my rear-end to set up each time I want to use it. The bottom two wheels shift around when I'm working the inside of a bowl and lose connection with my piece. The bottom, when I'm tightening it up to prevent this from happening, shifts the angle when I tighten the bolt. The second wheel is finnicky to get right because you have to play around with the length and angle of the pivoting point. The top rest is a bit easier, but still a pain. The bevel on the bottom rotates when I'm jimmying the rest pivots. What. the. heck.- The other big issue is that while this looks sturdy, it can wobble around just enough to be a problem for larger pieces. The whole point of a steady rest is to STAY STEADY and keep your piece from shifting!I have some major problems with this rest, and I advise people to up their budget and get a better-quality steady rest or otherwise make their own.
Maurice
Reviewed in Canada on April 5, 2023
I like this tool because it works. It holds the piece well. It is a bother to work both sides of the piece though so I ended up getting another tool holder so that I have one on both sides. Anyway the construction is heavy duty and I haven't had any problems with the tool.
david carter
Reviewed in Australia on July 10, 2021
Solid construction & easy to install. Stabilizes long pieces of timber for turning - mimimises chatter & flex.All in all a very good product at a reasonable price.
prototyper
Reviewed in Canada on March 30, 2021
It's important that you take the time to be sure the work is running true before setting up the rollers. I found it tricky to tighten the bolts holding the rollers without changing the position of the rollers. Once set up and properly tightened it works great.I realize it isn't possible to make the bottom bracket suitable for every possible lathe. The bottom bracket was too short for my lathe. Also the tightening bolt was too short. I had to make a new bottom bracket and find a suitable bolt to secure everything.
Tina B.
Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2021
I'm the kind of guy that will learn to tweak something a little, for value, rather than paying a lot more for something 100% minor-fault-proof. Still, I've had no issues properly using this and we all were amazed at how much sturdier and nice it is in person than the ad makes it look. The wheels are very nice and the arms and simple but perfectly adequate. This took the vibration out of a product I make that was a little long without one. I asked other flute makers about more expensive or simply better-photographed or more "professional looking" products and found out two of the pillars of the community, authors, were using this one!
Red Shannon
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2020
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NJSC Coquis
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2019
I'm a professional woodworker that has spent a lot of time on lathes. Everything from chair parts to balusters to newel posts, Etc. This steady rest is nicer than the ones I'm used to working with. The cast iron base and arm are quite rigid and have a quick adjust to square things up if you have to. The key thing with any steady rest is make sure the bottom two rollers are seated first and then Force down the top roller onto the work. Where the wheels touch the wood, they should deform/sqush a little bit. Included is a picture of my 8-foot newel post that chattered terrifically before installing this. Yeah it takes a minute to get all the bolts in order but this thing was no harder then the industrial ones I'm used to. Taking 5 minutes to set up a steady rest is not unusual . Once it's set up it's good to go You can't beat this for the money. It wasn't even worth me attempting to try to make my own. Very versatile highly recommend it
ML
Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2019
I bought this with a little hesitation due to some other reviews. I am glad I got it. For the price it works very well. It is not made for a midi lathe like I have. My lathe is a Wen 8x12 midi. This item attaches well and is solid. I had to remove one wheel on the bottom carrier and flipped the bottom carrier 180 degrees to ride the top of my work piece and used the other carrier to ride the front of the work piece. Overall it performed well and was not too hard to adjust with a little thought. It did what it was supposed to do. It kept my work piece from ripping out of the jaws with catches of the chisels and reduced vibration. There could be a few design changes to make it better and more adjustable, but for the price I can't complain.
Jay B. Sigel
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2019
The image attached shows the steady rest being used on a Jet 1440 lathe. I am needing to make about 40" of hardwood dowels made of sapele 1/4" diameter (slightly smaller, actually), each 3 1/4" long, for pins going into a spinning wheel that will insert into 12 spokes. I started with a piece of scrap sapele 3/4 x 3/4 x 15". Using this steady rest on this lathe worked the first time that I used it. (Other methods of dowel construction were considered including using a table saw and router table, none being ideal.) It worked so well that first time that I then tried it on another piece 16" long. That last one failed with the turned piece breaking 3" from the tail end. Perhaps there was a defect in the wood or I was too aggressive turning it -- I am not sure.These are the problems that I encountered: Obviously, you need to start carving at the tail end. The steady rest came with no instructions or advice, only a picture on the box. It installs easily on the lathe bed but adjusting it is not. Due to the size and spacing of the rollers, 1/4" is its smallest, practical limit. Getting the steady rest into position took some time. The rollers did NOT mark the wood, but getting them to stay in one position was difficult. They would slip even when the holding bolt/nut was very tight. I needed to use 3 different sizes of tool rests with this. I worked turning 3-4" at a time. The articulating tool rest holder support on my Jet lathe made it easier to position the tool rest around the steady rest, but they still hot in each other's way, which is probably unavoidable. The frequent adjustments of the steady rest and tool rest made creating this long dowel take over an hour instead of the expected 10 minutes. So, using this for making dowels is not time-efficient at all. Furthermore, there would be no practical use for a spindle that long, thin and, therefore, fragile. If you are just making short lengths of dowel, you don't need this device. If making long hardwood spindles for, say, chair backs, where the diameter is 3/8" and larger, this steady rest could then be indispensable.
Nathan bailey
Reviewed in Australia on November 9, 2019
It’s good it works
Rudy W. Timmerman
Reviewed in Canada on December 7, 2014
This unit is nice, and it seems to be well made. Wheels run smooth, and adjustments are easy. Does a good job to steady my longer spindles. I have a Jet mini Lathe for which I can't seem to find a bed extension. Should have bought the bed extension sooner, as I can no longer find one for the model I have. Although I am sure it does not take the place of a bed extension, this steady rest helps me work on some longer spindles.
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