We made a jig this week that saved about 3 times the time it took to figure it out and construct it and will save many more frustrating hours in the future .... Whenever we have to turn something longer than our lathe can handle (36"), we have been setting up this complicated and intensely fussy drill press jig below ... It is impossible to set it up accurately without a bunch of test holes and test pieces and I just hate it. We were doing just one turning for a friend this week and someone was using the drill press, so I thought, nows the time ... It took about a half an hour and worked on the first try ... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...
The old set up on the drill press above ...
The new set up ... Youve got to have a chuck that fits in your lathe drive shaft.. I used a regular 1.25" spade bit for these holes and turned an oak dowel to fit. Once you start, you can drill the whole depth of the spade bit if you want, which is about 3". The bits, with their tall straight sides and no lead screw just drill right in there if they are sharp ... I used the tail stock crank to push the stock onto the bit and by first mounting the stock on the regular drive center and tailstock dead center, I was able to locate the guide strips on either side of the stock before inserting the drill chuck ...
It was smoother drilling if I clamped the jig to the lathe choices before drilling ..
Theres the tenon in there ...
Perfect alignment .... we made a stubby tenon that was just an inch longer than the hole was deep that fit nicely. The extra inch let us clamp the stub that stuck out in the vice to remove it after we finished turning and sanding ... Next time well do work like below with a jig like this ...
bed blog post here
Sam is coming down the home stretch on a big railing project hes been working on for a while now. The first section went in before the holidays and the second section went in yesterday ... The last section that goes down the steps in the photo above has been templated , the parts are completed, and welding on that section will start tomorrow ... Click the photos to enlarge them.
The first step was to make a full size template on site.
The post fabrication is sort of technical and fussy but very effective and rigid when installed .
Then back to the fabrication department above ..
There was a little on site welding ...
And then, back to the shop for the last section that goes down the steps in the photo above .... 
The main balcony section is a long one ..... 20 or so and solid as a rock ...
Looks good from below, too ...
