when doing real long stuff on the dean smith and grace in work we have made a fixture out of an old fixed stead on an ajustable table so it can be placed where ever needed behind the headstock
DrS do you mean it is hanging out of the rear end due to shortish bed, if so I have turned up plastic bushes to fit in main spindle end & stop parts flailing.
Had a 10Ft bar once did the bush thing then a hole in a piece of wood clamped in a workmate with a fork lift holding workmate, just in case it tried to take off.
PS the workmate was a Black & Decker not my workmate Tony , please don't go down the H&S route.
Sorry got you now
A bush that fits the end of the mandrell
A table with a block of wood with a hole through on centre height
Run the lathe slow to avoid it whipping
I've heard tale of chucks being fitted to the rear of the spindle to save messing about with different size bushes. Kinda a half way house between that and fixed size bush would be to make the bush adjustable like a steady i.e. drilled and tapped for set screws
How far does the ball screw poke out the end of the spindle and what sort of dia is it?
Sorry got you now
A bush that fits the end of the mandrell
A table with a block of wood with a hole through on centre height
Run the lathe slow to avoid it whipping
My old lathe had a steel plate bolted to the gear at the end of the spindle, I welded three nut's to the plate and stuck
bolts in and clamped the bar like using a chuck, it was rude but worked great.
Now I make bushes up, I keep meaning to get a tight fitting bit of tube, tight fitting into the spindle, then weld three nut's
to it so it's like a chuck.
My initial thought was to cut a taper into a piece of hardwood, to hold it at the headstock end fixed, steady halfway down the bed, and live centre at the t/stockend. But... I was hoping to find a way without the fixed steady