On Sat, 18 Aug 2007 16:21:59 -0400, "Owen Lawrence"
wrote:


"Leo Lichtman" wrote in message
...

"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.

Excellent!

I've also seen, but never had occasion to try, secondary "tail stocks"
attached to a wall to turn long spindles. Something like that could
be as simple as a 60* center mounted on the wall, provided you got it
at the right height. It seemed to be working out okay for the guys
I've seen doing it, but I would think it wouldn't hurt to add a little
"insurance" by mounting a couple of big eye bolts to the wall as well,
and using a rachet strap to cinch the lathe against the work so it
can't slide and let your long spindle fly out at you.

That's only useful, of course, if (like myself) you don't have a
steady rest- or if you are turning a really big column that doesn't
leave enough room for a steady.

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.

It has a Morse taper, but it's held in an outside-threaded cylinder. To
move it forward or back you turn this wheel that sits around the cylinder.
(It's kind of like those routers that adjust the height by turning the ring
around the motor.) The problem is, when you loosen the thing so it can
move, it slops all over the place. It's a really dumb design if you ask me.
(Sears Craftsman lathe)

I do a lot of vases and hollow forms, and while my Delta does not work
the same way as you've described the Craftsman, it *is* limited to
2.5" of travel on the tailstock- since I like to drill a pilot hole
for hollowing, especially in end-grain, and most of my stuff is quite
a bit deeper than that, I've experimented a little, and found that
it's not really a problem to chuck up a drill bit in the tailstock,
and then slide the entire assembly along the ways without worrying
about the depth adjustment at all. There *is* the possibility of
slop, but one hand on the jacob's chuck keeping the chuck in place and
pushing the tailstock lightly downward, and the other feeding the
tailstock in seems to do the trick just fine- I can't find any real
difference in the finished hole between that method and feeding it in
with the hand crank.

Might be worth a try, and if it doesn't work for you, the bright side
is that it's not only a cheap accessory, but one that is more easily
moved to a different lathe at some future time than a threaded item
like a chuck.

I don't really like my lathe, but it's what I have right now. I intend to
upgrade it someday, but this day isn't it.

Thanks for the great idea!

- Owen -