Chris, I own two of these lathes, both 54". One is a standard and one is a quick change. My immediate concern is setting one up for tapering and one for repairs. I realize that the smaller spindle bore will necessitate the need for a steady rest with bearing/collet setup. I am working on that now. I actually have a steady rest from a Cuesmith and thought of pulling the bearing out of that since that would be the size of the collets I'll have to buy, I thought maybe grind a groove into the outer bearing to keep it steady and centered on the steady rest fingers. What would you suggest there? As far as taper bars go I figured to mount them on a bracket welded to the metal stand but need to know what you suggest for a spring tension/ roller bearing setup for the cross feed on the carriage. As far as the router mounting goes I have a quick change toolpost on the primary lathe and thought I could use a mount system like the one on the Cuesmith. I remember that being very user friendly. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I know that what I am doing sounds ridiculous to some as evidenced by the replies I have gotten, but for me I get as much joy and satisfaction out of making the cues as I do playing with them. These old lathes are not ideal for making cues, I know that. When the time comes that I want to move past shafts and repairs and build cues from scratch I will inevitably wind up buying a a purpose built lathe and inlay machine. Thanks for any and all help. - Joel
