I used to run thousands of 1/2 inch shafts 13 inches long.
Most of the time in thousand piece lots.
After sawing they had to be faced on both ends.
At first we would use a 5c collet with a collet stop.
But it was hard and slow to load parts that long with
the machine running.
So I got a 5c emergency collet and bored to1/2 inch
dia. bore about 1/2 inch deep for a stop for shaft.
Then I used a steady rest with ball bearing rollers.
To support the end of shaft as it was faced.
THEN PUT THE TOOL UPSIDE DOWN AND
IN THE BACK AND RAN SPINDLE IN REVERSE.
Now the cutting force would make shaft climb down
to the two rollers of steady rest and the top roller
was not needed. Making the loading just seconds with
machine running all the time. Then I made a facing tool
that would face and chamfer at the same time.

A guick way to set steady rest up was to move it close to
spindle and with 1/2 inch collet and shaft sticking out about
1 inch set rollers there, than move steady out to about 12
inches from collet. Lock in place then go.
Jim

In article , Jim wrote:
I used to run thousands of 1/2 inch shafts 13 inches long.
Most of the time in thousand piece lots.
After sawing they had to be faced on both ends.
At first we would use a 5c collet with a collet stop.
But it was hard and slow to load parts that long with
the machine running.
So I got a 5c emergency collet and bored to1/2 inch
dia. bore about 1/2 inch deep for a stop for shaft.
Then I used a steady rest with ball bearing rollers.
To support the end of shaft as it was faced.
THEN PUT THE TOOL UPSIDE DOWN AND
IN THE BACK AND RAN SPINDLE IN REVERSE.

Are you sure about running the spindle in reverse for that?
With an upside-down back-mounted tool, the cutting forces would be what
you want with it running forward.

Now the cutting force would make shaft climb down
to the two rollers of steady rest and the top roller
was not needed. Making the loading just seconds with
machine running all the time. Then I made a facing tool
that would face and chamfer at the same time.

A useful way to set up for production.

I would probably use a box tool for the task, and keep going
forwards. The box tool provides its own supports, so your steady rest
is not truly needed. It helps that I have a bed turret to run the box
tool in.

A guick way to set steady rest up was to move it close to
spindle and with 1/2 inch collet and shaft sticking out about
1 inch set rollers there, than move steady out to about 12
inches from collet. Lock in place then go.

Yep -- reasonable.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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