ONEWAY-3248 Bowl Steady Rest

Bowl Steady
Reduce vibration at the rim of your Bowl or Platter, making finish turning a safer, more pleasurable experience.
Our Bowl Steady rest has been well received by novice and professional bowl turners alike. It's very easy to set up and use, and will fit most lathes.

Why a Bowl Steady?
Woodturning is all about vibration and how you deal with it. Vibration can become a problem in the following situations:

• spinning out of balance work pieces
• excess play in the spindle bearings
• flexibility of the wood

No matter how good the lathe is that you are turning on, the machine cannot stop vibration caused by flexibility inherent in the wood. Spindle turners have been using steady rests for as long as people have been turning wood, but bowl turners have never used them. Spindle steady rests are generally not suitable for bowls, so at the urging of Dave Lancaster (a professional bowl turner in Maine) we set out to design a steady rest that takes into account the unique demands of bowl turning.

The Bowl Steady is easy to put on the lathe, and on most lathes can be mounted at any time. It uses up virtually no swing, and most importantly dampens most vibration. With less vibration problems, you can employ a wider variety of cuts and cutting styles to get the finish you want. 

Using the Bowl Steady
Position the Bowl Steady to the front of the bowl. Next, bring the two wheels up close and perpendicular to the rim of the bowl (or platter) you are turning. Loosen off the wing nut and give the tensioning arms a squeeze. When they are firm against the rim, tighten the wing nut and you are ready to go. The thinner the bowl is, the more the bowl rest will help.

ASSEMBLY
The Bowl Steady requires some basic assembly prior to use.

INSTRUCTIONS
The Bowl Steady instructions can be downloaded in PDF format here.

PACKAGE INCLUDES

• Tension Arm Assembly
• Wheels (2)
• 1¼" Post
• Slotted Base
• Hardware Package

IMPORTANT NOTES

The Clamp Block may be sold and/or packaged separately.
Please specify your bed gap when ordering.

What is the "Bed Gap"?
The bed gap is the distance between the bed ways on your lathe.
The Bed Gaps for the more common lathes can be found here.