Ken has been making the GM5 for quite some time now and we have many happy customers. Ken is a turning enthusiast first and foremost and has been warmed by your delightful correspondence. 

We have studied the proposed GM6 steady rest, and have decided it would not be economical to produce due to some fiddly details of getting some pieces millimeter perfect. It is a great design however would cost very significantly more for not a great deal of return.  However we do not wish to disappoint, and as such all steady rests will now be manufactured from oak wood due to the ability to purchase much finer prime grade stock. The oak version will be the only version available, and will be dubbed the 'Garner Mark 5.5 universal'. When it came to softwood we frequently found it difficult to pick good knot free stock, a frustrating and wasteful process. There is however a consequence of making the the GM 5.5 out of oak: ordering materials will require batch production of several units at once. For this reason, and for simplicity, we have decided to offer a universal model instead of tailoring each model to your particular lathe. Each GM5.5U will come with 3 spaces pieces to fit the 3 most common sizes of lathes.

As you can see the 280mm is the base model and so does not require a spacer.

Please note it this is complete jibberish please read this page by clicking here :) 

 In the event of your lathe being somewhere in the middle, ie 325mm, we are confident the GM5.5U will be close enough with the closest spacer as to not matter - the sliders will slide a little further than necessary to always reach the middle of the turning centre. There will be no detriment to the GM5.5's performance.

Please contact us here with any questions. We like to hear from you.

Thank you and good turning.