steady rest question - how many arms?

[Michael Schneider]

Hello all,

I am looking to add a larger steady rest to my lathe. I have a oneway rest that works fine for smaller works.

I am looking for a steady rest that will work for for 6-18". Most common would be 6-12", just want to be able to turn the very occasional larger piece.

My lathe is vicmarc 300 with a 24" swing.

I have been looking at the 3 (favoring the Advance Lathe and Clark - they are a little more old school)
Carter
Advanced Lathe Tools - http://advancedlathetools.com/woodturningreview2013.pdf
Clark - - https://www.theokspindoctor.com/product-p/sr-basic.htm

All of the option of how many arms. The Carter can be added to later, but the Clark in particular would need to be specified out when ordered.

I would like to keep the 12 o'clock position free for laser or camera.



Thinking of (in terms of clock)
10:30 and 1:30 for top

4:00 and 8:00 for bottom

What configurations have you used and liked? or used and not liked?

You have all been so helpful in the past, thanks for your generosity with your skill and experience.

Michael

[Joe Meirhaeghe]

I have the Advanced Lathe Tools steady rest & love it. It has 3 arms & wheels which is all you need. I have hollowed 400 lb pieces with it with no problems. I'd encourage you to call Steve Sinner at Advanced lathe tools & talk to him about the differences & why his is more heavy duty than others. ( much bigger wheel bearings, hard wheels vers others that use softer wheels, to arm is offset ). He has many very happy steady rest customers.

[William C Rogers]

All of the ones look to be very good. I don't have any of them as I built my own based on Jeff Nicol design mainly because of cost. My build is posted in my many upgrades thread below. Before I had built two from plywood. The first one was for a 12" swing lathe. I used three thicknesses of 3/4" plywood. For the arms I used T track. It worked very well. When I raised for an 18" swing I built another one from plywood, however I only used two thicknesses of 3/4" plywood. Not near as good as the first one. The plywood built (with 3 thicknesses) work just fine and are very inexpensive. Also a bit lighter than my steel one. I was mainly using the steady rest for spindle work, but will now be using the one I built for hollow forms. It seems the 1:00 - 1:30 position is best for that. I have an arm that can be placed in any position on my JN design steady rest. I did try using the 12" with a riser block, but that wasn't very good. I suggest you buy or make one for the size of your lathe.

Edit: I have multiple arms, but in reality you just need 3.

[Gregory Cowart]

I have a Clark with the four arms and they are at the positions you cited. This thing is stout and I mean stout. I have the Clark Hollowing Tool and the Steady Rest. I like both.

[Tom Giacomo]

I started with 4 arms but now use just three at 1, 5 and 9 o'clock. So I can use a hollowing jig with lazar and not have interference.

[Jeffrey J Smith]

I built the Nichols design using the plans/process that JD Combs put together (google them - they're excellent. I went with three arms offset 7 degrees to the right to clear a laser/camera setup. My lathe swing is 25", I built on a 26" ring. It's stout and stable. I took the opportunity to use the excuse to brush up on the welding 'skills' that have laid dormant since college days (40+ years ago. The build was fun, and relatively easy. If you cut and prepped the parts yourself (easy to do with an angle grinder, belt sander and maybe a hacksaw) any competant welder could probably do what took me all day to do in about an hour.
IMG_0215.jpgsorry about the sideways photo...