How To Make A Spindle Steady Rest • Apr 22, 2010
For a recent woodturning project I required a spindle steady rest. I couldn’t find anything locally that would fit my lathe and the ones I found for sale elsewhere were lathe specific or way above what I was willing to pay so I decided to build my own. Boy, was I glad that I did because it was really easy to do!

A spindle steady is used to steady a long spindle while turning. The smaller the diameter and the longer the spindle is the more likely it is to vibrate and ‘whip’ back and forth, making it pretty much impossible to turn. The spindle steady, using clamping pressure with a series of wheels, tames this erratic motion allowing you to turn your piece as normal. Basically it minimizes the distance of support on your workpiece.
Making your own steady rest is rather straight forward and easily finished in a day, though an afternoon and a few hours the following morning is preferred since this will give time for the glued pieces to dry.
Here’s how I built mine:






