I want to center drill a large shaft. The shaft is about 24" long and is from an old machine tool, but the ends were never drilled for centers. The shaft is too big to pass through my lathe spindle. I can suss out how to face the shaft off square, lay out and centerpunch a hole as closely as I can, and I can then chuck one end of the shaft on the last 1/8" of the jaws and hold the other end in my hand and gently "pick up" the centerpunch with a center drill in the tailstock chuck. That way would get me pretty close, but it would not be exact. I could then mount it on a center in the tailstock and bring up a steady rest and then remove the tailstock center and using a tiny boring tool, bore the center, but how do I know the steady rest isn't just a little bit off?
What is the *actual* procedure for this?
Grant