"Owen Lawrence" wrote: (clip)I've got a lathe that can hold about 35" with
the live centre, but I want to turn bedposts 36" and 48" long. Obviously
I'll have to do each one in two or more sections. (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sometimes the obvious is wrong. You could hold the work in a chuck and a
steady rest. I have described, in an earlier thread, how to hold square
stock in the steady rest, so I won't go into it again, unless you ask.

How does your tailstock hold a live center? Isn't there a Morse taper? Do
you know that you can buy collets that fit in a Morse taper, for any drill
size you care to use? Uses up less bed space than a jacobs chuck, and more
accurate.