Have you ever been working on, or polishing a piece that is supported only by the chuck and bumped it off center. I have and have been able to use the tail stock attachments to get it back to center. Provided that they will fit. However, my attachments are small, I have a mini lathe. When the piece of work is too large to fit the attachments, such as a hole in a in a piece, my attachments will fit in the hole. I made a couple of wooden Oak pieces similar to the metal ones to solve that problem. The one time I tried it out, it worked.

I have NO intention using them for anything else. 

 

You can see the metal ones that go in the tail stock with bearings and the larger ones I made.

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

 

 

That is a neat idea, Ron. Your tail stock center, with the removable points, sure makes that simpler. I've been tempted to make similar devices but my center has a fixed point. Maybe make something that would fit snugly over it.

I have NO intention using them for anything else.

 

 

That won't help.  The ATF has already surrounded your shop and are closing in.

I think Jack Bauer is heading the Op up.

 

 

Nice solution.

  I've put  things on my tailstock to prevent things moving too.  I think the worst was a ten inch wood ball that got away from me and went howling across my shop.

Getting the dents out of that sucker took some doing.

Those are very nice Ron. And hey they do the trick.

Neat little story.....   Metal lathe...

 

I took an extra 8" 3 jaw chuck and made a mount for

it to fit in my tail stock for working on small thin parts.

One of the first time I used it I put in a 18" x 3/8" steel

rod. I had the speed set to high. When I turned it on the 

rod wound up like a spring. The weight of the chuck was

to much for the rod to handle... Well that din't work.

Wanting to bore a deep hole using my Shopsmith in the horizontal mode, I chucked up an 18" extension with a 1/4" spade bit. IIRC, the speed was set at "slow". It was still fast enough to whip that extension across the way tubes. Put a nice dent in one and bent the he!! out of the extension. I figured the dent was enough to remind me not to try that again so, the extension got tossed.

Physics never was my strong suit. Apparently neither was/is common sense.

One of my Father’s favorite expressions was. “I guess you have to learn the hard way”.      Pretty much the only way I learn. Show up, try to do whatever, start learning what doesn’t work.