OTMT 10008 Steady Rest for C2 Mini Lathe

I have been trying to turn some 1" UHMW rods. They come a bit warped, and there was no way i could get consistent tolerances without a steady rest. This thing bolts right on and has all of the necessary clearances for the bed. My one complaint is that the brass supports are machined to a point (see pic), so it digs in to anything soft. I'm going to round the contact edge over a tad and polish them so it's less inclined to scrape the stock. I'll try to update my review with 'after' pics. I don't knock the rating for this, though, because there may be some application where a sharper point here is beneficial, and it's exactly how it looks in the product listing. Besides, this entire mini lathe experience seems to be putting finishing touches on every mating surface, and this to me is no different. It would be like complaining about having to assemble any other project you purchased as an "assembly required" kit.

This steady rest works great! I can now turn down the the tiny carburetor inlet needles that I use in non-original applications without deflection or damage. I did need to modify the clamp pad (that carries the stud) so that the steady rest would mount closer to my mini-lathe's chuck, but that was not an issue of manufacture but rather of my own needs. Thanks!

Like another reviewer, this item was broken in two right out of the package. It was well packaged for shipment, and there didn't seem to be any evidence of damage to the packaging inside or out. This leads me to believe it may have left the factory in a damaged condition. This is a poor design with thin cross-sections and numerous stress risers just begging to fail under any conventional load. They sent me a refund. I packed it up and sent it back.

UPDATE: As-received this steady rest was a hot mess and I wrote the review below BUT Travers Tool read the review and reached out to me to see how they could make things right. I am SUPER IMPRESSED with Travers customer service!!! I shared photos with them and explained the problems. They went through their stock to see if there were others with similar issues to set aside and sent me a good one. I can't say enough good things about Travers Tool! I'll be buying more from them in the future. Great people!!! ORIGINAL COMMENTS: Well the best I can say is that it was really ugly as received, the paint was chipped, sharp edges and burrs, the casting of the frame is very rough, the fingers are difficult to move / adjust, the knurl on the adjusting screws are all boogered up and one of the adjusting screws is bent. For the $58.50 + $7.68 shipping, I'm pretty sure I did not get money's worth. There's cheap and then there's this. Sad that Travers Tool would sell something like this. I used to think they were top notch. Other than that it's fine. :-(

Steady rest looks solid, and is very simple, meaning there are several diy upgrades I can make myself, and easy to repair when things wear out over time. Overall very please with the purchase

There was padding top and bottom, but not the sides. Guess it took a side shot. I drilled and screwed it back together with a bracket, to make it usable. Start adding more padding to your boxes. It gets the job done now.

Fits my HFT mini-lathe perfectly