Making something longer than your bed length?

[Steve LaFara]

I need to make some 1 1/2" wood dowels around 24" long but the bed on my lathe will only allow 15" between centers. Yea, it's a small Sherline metal lathe that I've adapted for wood.

Is there some way that I can rig a live center support off the end of the bed so I can turn half of it and then flip it around and finish the other half. I know it sounds dumb but there's no $ in the budget for real lathe at this time.

[Curt Fuller]

This was just the first thing that come up when I googled wooden dowels. I'm sure you can get them somewhere in about any kind of wood you need, unless you're needing something really exotic.

http://www.americanwoodcrafterssupply.com/wooden-products/dowels.htm#dowels

Or you could make them in sections and dowel them together. But I can't suggest a reliable way to turn a dowel that isn't supported on both ends of the lathe. Maybe someone else knows a trick though.

[Bruce Pratt]

Find a short section of 1 1/2" ID iron pipe; grind one end on the outside to made a sharp edge and use it as a die for cutting the dowel. Put a chamfer on one end of the wood billet and then drive in through the pipe.

Similar in concept to a dowel plate, like what Lie-Nielsen sells, only larger diameter.
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Bruce Pratt

[Gary Max]

Do you have a good hardwood 4x4 ????? make a extension out of it. Heck if you have the time you could even rig this up to support your Sherline tailstock.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Steve,
I just had occasion to make two 1 1/2" diameter dowels for a project I did. I chose to make them with my molder as versus the lathe. It's really difficult to make smooth long dowels on the lathe. If you want, my machine is still set up and I will gladly run them for you. The results will be very good. PM me if I can be of help.
faust