Sheldon 11-inch lathe progress - Part IV: New Steady Rest and Clamp Modification

So, is it "IV" or "IIII" to depict the number 4 in Roman numerals? Watch dials usually have "IIII" (if they are sporting a Roman numeral dial) while pretty much everywhere else it is "IV". Moving right along to the real subject of this blog entry, I was able to purchase a steady rest for my 78-year-old Sheldon lathe. Here is a photo from the seller:

Oh, and if you don't believe me about the IIII on a watch dial, here's proof:

Here is a clip from a Sheldon sales booklet that shows the steady rest for my 11" lathe is a K-575, and my steady rest base has XK575 cast into it:

Getting back to the task at hand, the clamp that came with the steady rest was home-built from a chunk of hot rolled steel (mentioned by the seller) and it was too large to fit my lathe bed.

The bar being 1" thick, it wouldn't fit over the support webbing down in the middle of the lathe bed, and it was also too long to fit between the bed ways. And look at the length of that bolt! It had obviously been used on something different than the size of lathe I have.

First thing to do was cut the clamp nearly to length on the band saw. Then I squared up the sides on the Smithy Granite mill...

... and milled a couple steps in the ends, so it would raise the clamp up enough to clear the lathe bed webbing. These steps also make the clamp look and function like the real thing. I also milled the ends to final dimension.

And here's the finished product, with the bolt cut to fit my lathe. It was about an inch too long.

Here is the steady rest mounted on the lathe. Ain't it purty.

Now my only dilemma is, should I paint it dark red to match the rest of the lathe or leave it in its original color? Decisions, decisions...