John, I have turned several pieces that were significantly longer than my
lathe bed. The longest was the mast for my sailboat at 14' 2". Not too
long after I did that, I had a restoration job to do that required returning
some antique bed parts which had been burned in a fire. They were somewhere
around 50" or so. In both cases I used my mini lathe for the tailstock, and
I used a floor stand tool rest that I built. If you are interested, you can
see pictures of the mast turning adventure on my personal website,
http://www.enter.net/~ultradad. When you get to the main page, scroll down
to the link under boatbuilding titled turning the mast.

--
Bill

Bill Grumbine

commercial site www.wonderfulwood.com
personal site www.enter.net/~ultradad
"Eddie Munster" wrote in message
...
I feel like I fell for the 9 hp shopvac or something.

My lathe specifications are 42 inches between centers. Well sure, that
is without a spur in the headstock or a live center in the tailstock.

In reality of what I can turn between centers, reasonbly being able to
mount it, is 39.5 inches.

Well it was a factor in my decision making. Now I know.

John