Spindle Steady

Take control of your spindles with our easy to mount and operate steady rest, ensuring each spindle is a more enjoyable experience.

Reduce vibration of spindles from ½" to 3" in diameter.

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 Spindle 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 traditional spindle steady's tend to be large heavy pieces of equipment which are awkward or cumbersome to use.

The ONEWAY Spindle Steady uses a unique "scissor" clamping mechanism which allows you to move and adjust it a lot more quickly and easily than traditional steady's.

The Spindle 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.

Feedback from turners testing the design has been extremely positive.

Left or Right Handed?

It doesn't matter! When assembling the Spindle Steady, you can assemble it for either left or right-handed operation.

Increased Safety

The Spindle Steady also increases the safety factor. When turning a spindle, you no longer have to try to support it with your hand. A nasty catch can break a spindle, or at least create an ugly gouge in the spindle, and if you are supporting it with your hand, you could get badly hurt.

Using the Spindle Steady

1. Position the spindle steady on your machine so that the post is at the back. Adjust the height of the tension arm assembly to vertically center the tension arm assembly with the spindle (exact height adjustment is not critical).

2. Loosen off all the wing nuts, open up the tensioning arms and slide the base forward until the bottom wheel is close to bottom dead center on the spindle you’re turning. Tighten the base to the lathe bed.

3. Once the spindle steady is securely fastened to the lathe, squeeze the tension arms with light pressure to bring the wheels into contact with the spindle. Be careful not to pull up or push down on the tensioning arms as this will deflect the spindle.

4. Tighten all the wing nuts starting with the two that clamp the arms, and finish with the two that clamp the swivel block.

Assembly

The Spindle Steady requires some basic assembly prior to use. It can be assembled for either left or right hand operation.