LSR3 Wood Lathe Steady Rest

The media could not be loaded. Set up was easy. The piece worked fine on my Grizzly G0733 that has a 18 inch swing. The only problem that I had with the tool was when I got a catch the wheels would move, other that that it is a great tool for the price. Set up time is just a minute. Load the bottom wheels first then drop the top wheel on to the wood. I put a 4 inch round piece of wood into it and had room for a bigger one. Would recommend it for lathe work.

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.

This rest is certainly not flimsy. It is solid and hell for stout. I gave it three stars for ease of use because it can be a bit tedious to set up. However, once you get it set, it stays there.If you start a piece with a live center (as you should), set up the rest BEFORE you remove the live center. If you take the live center off first, there is absolutely no way you can get the piece perfectly centered.I highly recommend this rest. Buy one before the price goes up!

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.

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!

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.