I've been playing with the idea of making a taper attachment for PM1440
for a while, but because most of the stuff I do is within the range of
the compound I have just been using that. Well, a buddy of mine asked
me to make some longer tapers yesterday and he's willing to pay a fair
rate, so I move that up to "next project" status.

I don't really want to remove the back splash from the lathe, so here is
my thought. Put the pivot support near the head with the pivot center
as close to exactly halfway between the bed and the splash guard. The
back not the one over the chuck. Then make two or three swing ends.
Maybe one at about 8 inches for short steep tapers, one at 20 inches,and
one at the full end of the bed for really long tapers. My thought is
that both ends of the linear rail can be held in a pinch collar so the
swing end can just be machined straight. Loosen the collars. Adjust
the position, and lock it in place. I know it may be a bit fiddley, but
nothing a brass hammer can't be used to adjust. If I need to use a
different swing end bracket I can unbolt the collar from the bracket it
is on, remove the linear rod and replace it with a longer or shorter
one, and slide the collar and mount on to line up with the desired swing
end bracket. The best part is that as long as I record everything in my
notebook I don't have to make everything at once. Just the part I need
right now. I could of course just use 1 swing end bracket, and have
three sets of mounting holes, but I think if I have to do much of this
work I'd like to leave the brackets in place, and just remove the
bracket on the cross slide and the linear rail and its mounts when not
in use. It would make setups much faster when I need it, and I don't
think the adjustable and pivot brackets would be in the way when the
rail is off. They might catch some chips, but that's about it.