Advice Re: ONEWAY Bowl Steady

[Tom Albrecht]

Does anybody here have experience/ advice to share about the ONEWAY product?

Thanks.

[Roger Chandler]

I don't have one, but I have a friend who has a Oneway 2436, and he has the bowl steady, and uses it all the time. Sometimes he turns large bowls from green wood, and the steady really helps in keeping the ovaling to a minimum as he turns to finish and lets them warp. That side support where the pressure from the cut come when hollowing out the inside of bowls is almost a must......also keeping your wood wet by spraying with some water along the way also keeps the drying while spinning thing to a minimum as well.

[Jon McElwain]

I've got the Oneway bowl steady on a 2436 lathe. I use it, but it really irritates me - it's hard to use and adjust. Once it is in place, it does the job fine, but it is overly complicated for my liking. I feel like I need an extra hand to set it up.

[Reed Gray]

I have never used one. In part, that may be because I learned to do without before I even knew what a bowl steady is. Most of the time, the vibration issue is from too much bevel pressure as in "the bevel should rub the wood, but the wood should not know it" unknown author, at least to me. Gentle hand pressure on the outside will suffice if you use the formula of 'tool pressure equals hand pressure'. If I was trying to turn less than 1/8 inch thick, then maybe I would use water on the bowl, but even then, I don't, just take it down in steps.

robo hippy

[Bruce Pratt]

Got one, like it. Find it easy to use. A couple of tips:

- position the bowl steady on the side of the lathe (front or back) so the direction of most of your cuts are pushing against the wheels of the bowl steady

- make sure the wheels are positioned vertically on the post, so that the midline of the lathe is between the two wheels

- align the wheels so that they touch the bowl on the largest diameter of the wheel (if the bowl is rubbing on the side of the wheel, you are more likely to rub off bits of the wheel, making it run roughly)

- don't overtighten the wheels against the work piece, as this will tend to push it off center

- put some blue tape on you bowl under the wheel track to minimize any scrubbing of the wheel onto the bowl. Just remember to take the tape off when not turning, as it may prevent normal oxidation of the wood surface and give you a stripe of lighter colored wood when the bowl is finished.

[John Keeton]

I bought mine used from Bill Grumbine and I love it. I don't seem to have any difficulty adjusting it. Nice for platters, too.

[Tom Albrecht]

Thanks for the input. I asked the question because I am trying to decide if I should build one as I saw in some posts here last week, or if I could make do with the two Oneway wheels.

I have the Oneway spindle steady and used it so much when I was doing production spindles that I went through two sets of wheels and bearings.

[Barry McFadden]

I have the Oneway bowl steady and really like it. Don't know what difficulty Jon is having with it. I just put it on the lathe, bring the wheels up close to the bowl, loosen the tension arms and squeeze until the wheels just touch the wood and tighten. I made it a bit easier by replacing the nut that tightens the tension arms with a knob from Home Depot so I don't need to use a wrench.

[Tom Albrecht]

I have the Oneway bowl steady and really like it. Don't know what difficulty Jon is having with it. I just put it on the lathe, bring the wheels up close to the bowl, loosen the tension arms and squeeze until the wheels just touch the wood and tighten. I made it a bit easier by replacing the nut that tightens the tension arms with a knob from Home Depot so I don't need to use a wrench.

Thanks Barry.
How large of a bowl could you use it on?
Can you use it on a platter, as in behind the platter?

[Justin Stephen]

Yup, own one and use it mostly for platters since typical steady rests do not work well for those. I have only used it a few times and agree that it is a pain to adjust, but will probably use it more and more often as I make larger and larger platters. I plan on trying to replace all of the hex nuts with thumb screws at some point.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I use a steady with very large bowls that very easily flex, like in the picture where you can see the rough cut without the steady on one half of the rim and the much smoother cut on the other half.

The one I use is a home build with just one wheel, I set it right at the cutting height, the wheel is just kissing the wood when not cutting, it is there to just control the flexing and vibration, wood does move differently in the cross grain end side grain part of a bowl, even if it is only 20 thou difference it will to start moving more and more without some steadying, be it with hand or steady wheel control.

steady rest cutting improvement.jpg

[Barry McFadden]

Thanks Barry.
How large of a bowl could you use it on?
Can you use it on a platter, as in behind the platter?

My lathe is 12" over the bed so that's the biggest size I use it on but it would work well on whatever size bowl your lathe can handle. I haven't used it on a platter yet because in my experience since the platter is so shallow I don't really get any chatter. I use it on bowls that are around 4" to 10" deep.