Some years ago a, now sadly deceased, clubmate, who owned a backstreet garage, made me several tool rests from the centre shaft of shock absorbers. They are hardened and highly polished steel. At my suggestion he welded the post of one of them off-centre to the rest so the Turner has a choice of overhang from the same rest. Simply the best rests I have come across and at least one of them, a tiny detail jobby, is still in daily use.
Brian