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Not easy parts to make Zee and they look ok to me. If you don't have one, $50 buys you a one inch belt sander at Harbor Freight, the perfect tool to blend rough edges and smooth contours. I'd be lost without mine.
What may be more helpful is one of those gizmos that take a file and moves it up and down.As I recall, you can even drive it from a lathe or motorize it.A few members talked about that some time ago and showed projects.I think that's something I want to do.
pictures would help....I assume you mean the kind of steady rest with bars holding the work from three sides, the rest attached to the bed rails of the lathe? Did you try some grease on them to help the digging-in? I've only used them on brass and steel, the rest did leave a rub mark on the part, can see how it might dig in more on aluminum. Any way you could make a bushing ring to glue onto the part, have the rest rub on that?