Just got a Nutool MC 900 lathe similar to Clarke tools and many
others..probably Chinese in origin but works well.
This is probably very obvious but....

When turning a piece say 8" by 4"diam with a view to hollowing (Vase shape
for example) I start off spindle turning to shape it up.The spur drive (4
teeth) inavriably starts to slip after a while and no amount of bashing back
in or increasing tailstock pressure seems to help?
I then mounted it on a very basic 4 jaw chuck and in conjunction with the
tailstock tried turning again but it seems impossible to centre it as before
and I therefore return it to new shape / centre.To hollow it out i removed
tailstock and tried with a small spindle gauge
to attack the end.It all flew off the chuck and thenwas impossible to
recentre on the chuck.
Is there a better way to hold such pices and how do I retain centres when
transferring from spindle to face turning.
Thanks and regards from the UK