Hello Buck,

If you have cut a cross on the headstock end for the spur drive to fit into, the
normal procedure is to tighten up the tailstock fairly snug to seat the wood
onto the spur and then back off the pressure a bit. Only experience will tell
you how much to back off. You do not want so much pressure that it causes the
piece of wood to bow slightly in the middle. This can cause a lot of problems,
out of round, chatter on the surface of the wood, etc.

I personally use a Steb Center to drive my spindle work and it does require some
pressure to make the little points on the drive center dig into the wood. It is
nice in that you can back off the tailstock a bit and actually stop the spindle
to inspect it without taking it off of the lathe or stopping the lathe.

Even on a 24 inch spindle, it would be good to have a center steady to help
stabilize the wood for turning. If you are going to do very much spindle work, I
recommend you either purchase a center steady or make one. There are several
plans kicking around on how to make them. A search of Google might readily turn
up their location.

Fred Holder
http://www.fholder.com/

In article rs.com, buck
says...

When doing spindle work "how snug should the piece be"? Do you tighten the
tailstock just enough to create friction so the piece doesn't slip or should
you tighten it up real snug? I'm talking about a 2" square X 24" long.

Thanks