Woodworking MT2 Heavy Duty Live Tailstock Center

I have a Rockler Excelsior lathe, 5 speed belt driven. I changed out the small diameter live center for this one. It has performed great. I bore a 1/2” hole in the end of the blank and the live center fits perfectly in the hole. I may use a larger hole, but the center can accommodate quite a large hole. I have three live centers, but use this one all the time. No vibration, smooth spin, and shiny!

Solid tail stock lathe piece. High quality; works great!!

I'm seeing a lot of reviews bashing this live-center about crunchy bearings and a soft tip, the one I got had buttery smooth turning.Lot of 1 star reviews about the tip, it looks like they're just pressing it into the workpiece as a forming tool, which will only mushroom the tip. It's meant to be soft, but most people use this product wrong; here's what you have to do use utilize this tool, for the new turners:• Use a center drill set, I have an Accusize center drill set( $24 on amazon, amazing set. Just remember that you're not supposed to feed it into the workpiece at mach speed, that'll cause it to shatter/break.• drill a center hole how ever small or large you want in your piece, there's no way around this if you want to turn something that's sticking out too far from the chuck, this will pretty much eliminate chatter.• place your live center in the tail stock, bring it up to your work piece's center hole and apply moderate pressure. (Keep in mind, you aren't supposed to apply so much pressure that it bends the tail stock away from the piece, that's probably why you're hearing crunch bearings. It's not meant for that much pressure when you don't even need it anyways. you just want enough surface contact with the live-center's head to add rigidity to your workpiece's end.If you don't want to drill a hole in your workpiece, then you need one of two things: A steady rest or following rest. A stead rest can move where you put it on the ways and has 3 cylinders with bearings(Usually) that the workpiece rests on. The following rest bolts to your compound so it moves with your cutting tool, this only has only 2 cylinders or adjustable pieces that lightly press against your work piece's backside to remove chatter, bending and add rigidity. But be warned, both of these rests take up a lot of space, especially if you have a mini-lathe like me. The live center only needs a tiny hole to sit in at the end of the stock to work.The photos I added show what you need to do to properly use a live center.I used black marker on the tip to show where the pressure is supposed to be placed, it's not on the tip but just behind it.I've made my hole pretty big so yo guys could see it.Hope it helps for those who didn't know when they're starting out like me.

Great live drive for M1

Very well designed and constructed. The MT2 fit well and the bearings and unit worked well

I have a home mini-lathe. This is large for my lathe but it fits. It was inexpensive and it works fine for me.

well-built

The item was as described and I have used it several times. Works great!