Tailstock Turret

Hmm ... I've never used one of those -- though they keep coming up on my eBay searches for Morse Taper gauges. I do have a bed turret (replaces the tailstock) for my 12x24" Clausing, and have used quite a few different tools designed for turrets.

As for that JT adaptor -- is the cylindrical part hardened and ground, or mild steel? If the latter, can you set up a taper attachment on your lathe to turn a proper Morse taper (to match your tailstock) from it? You don't mention what the Morse Taper is in your tailstock, so I don't know whether you can turn it or not. (Or are you looking for arbors to adapt drill chucks to the turret? I guess so, re-reading some of the above.

Yes -- cylindrical to Jacobs Taper arbors are available, though they usually don't have the flat -- which is probably to keep the setscrew from leaving burrs on the shanks which make it difficult to remove the tools when it is time to set up for a different project.

Note that there are also female Morse taper to cylindrical adaptors which you can use to hold Morse taper shanked drill bits, and for the smaller ones, there are Morse taper collets with flats in the inside bottom to accept a pair of opposing flats on the bit to keep it from spinning in the collet. I think that this might be the better way to set up your multiple drill bits to keep from having too much stick-out.

There are various tools which will fit the 1" bores in your turret (which happen to match the bores in my bed turret). That is a pretty good size. You can use Geometric die heads for up to 3/4" threads, and releasing tap holders for internal threading, and floating reamer holders, as well as the drill bushings which you are considering making. However, some of these things (e.g. the Geometric die heads and the releasing tap heads) will work better if you have a lever feed attachment for that tailstock. It is difficult to keep the feed rate right with the feed handwheel on the normal tailstock.

There are also T-bar knurlers which bring knurls in on either side of the workpiece for a balanced load.

Also, there are roller box tools, which are sort of a combination of a tool holder and a traveling steady rest for turning down to the desired diameter in a single pass (usually).

One other thing which you are missing with this which is present with the bed turret is a separate feed stop for each station, so you can tune the depth of drill, or the depth of tapping, or stop the Geometric die head before the chasers hit a shoulder on the workpiece. Also, the bed turret self indexes -- when you withdraw it the full way, it automatically advances to the next station.

I've been looking at the ones offered on eBay for the No 3 Morse Taper (which is what my tailstock has), and wondering whether I could get any use from it which I can't get from the bed turret. (Of course, it is a lot easier to install than the bed turret, which is quite heavy when loaded with tooling. I've set up a dummy lathe bed off the end of the actual bed, so I can simply slide the turret into position after removing the tailstock (which is not nearly your 400 pounds. :-)

Good Luck, DoN.