"Owen Lawrence" wrote in message
...

"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!

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.
(clip)The problem is, when you loosen the thing so it can move, it slops
all over the place.(clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
How about drilling on the lathe by sliding the tailstock forward instead of
cranking the ram? (I still recomend using a steady rest, and doing the
bedposts in one piece.)