I've got a lathe that can hold about 35" with the live centre, but I want to turn bedposts 36" and 48" long. Obviously I'll have to do each one in two or more sections. I can easily make a tenon on one end, but how do I accurately make the receiving mortise (hole)? My drillpress has a capacity of 16 1/2", minus whatever I lose for a forstner bit. I suppose I could just try to drill it with the hand held drill, but I don't believe I could get it drilled straight enough.
The obvious solution would be to just turn the posts in three sections, but I'm not happy with that. My tailstock isn't designed to hold a chuck and drill bit, so drilling on the lathe is out. Can you think of a better way I can do this? I suppose I could just turn the tops of the posts and use other techniques to fasten them to the square bottoms. I just have this feeling I'm missing something obvious. Any suggestions?
Thanks.
- Owen -
P.S. In case it makes any difference, I'm laminating 2 pine 2x4s to make the blanks.