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A question about rests
- Thread starter Fred
- Start date
It depends on what you are planning on making or repairing. If you are cutting a long thin shaft then a following rest would be best. If you are cutting the end of a large shaft that is to big to fit inside the spindle of your lathe then you should use a steady rest. Does your lathe have the mounting holes already drilled and tapped. Personaly I never used either one in my shop experiences. Repair shops would use them for shaft rebuilding.
Like Bill said it depends on what you're doing, but it would also depend on your lathes spindle through-hole. Something like a 9" SB only has a 3/4 through-hole which makes a steady almost a must. I have both and I have used my follower maybe once in the past 2 years, but get a lot more use out of the steady.