Denford Orac and Tailstock Tools

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since I was last reading this daily but now I'm
back... with a problem(s) following. I kept getting manky cuts on my
lathe, it would create a HORRIBLE knurl like pattern on the work
about half way along unless it was anything other than plastic. It
would whine like a pig in BBQ season as well. I have, and have had
for a while, a live tail stock. But no centre drill. When I finally
got hold of one just recently the problem's cause was fairly
obvious!!! It now cuts beautifully.

The question: Say I want to turn something that's open to
deflection (It's only 10mm or so in diameter), it's made of steel or
stainless for instance so will need fair tool pressure, I need to
turn it 100 - 150mm out of the chuck, but I DON'T want a live
tailstock centre in it's end.

My first thought was 'There has to be some kind of live chuck for
the tailstock'. Is this true? Are they a zillion pounds each? Is it
worth me just getting the lathe to cut me a morse and me fitting the
chuck I already have on some bearings?

In one frame of mind I can't see how some people could even attempt
to turn a morse taper (Without a guide) on a manual lathe. And then
in the other frame the CNC lathe is so picky and time consuming to
do simple things on. The keypad is far from great, and anyone who
has run a CNC lathe will know, one missed decimal and you have
carbides pinging across the room (And worse if it's mine! :) I'm
starting to think about selling this, buying a small Myford (Or
similar) and fitting it with CNC so I can use it manually as well.

One thing, I noticed just recently while I was turning down the
outside of a Soda Stream bottle; yes it was empty, it had an entire
end cut off. It's valve end was used to hold it secure in the live
centre and it was clamped real tight on the chuck. About half way
down it's length there was a strange sort of wave like (Sine wave
shaped I guess) pattern in the grooves the tool had left. This
pattern was going from chuck to tailstock in the middle for about 2"
(Only noticable under bright light). Other than that it cut
perfectly. Any clues as to what it might be?

Sorry it's long guys and thanks for any help,
John H.