Good luck with turning that size aluminium, but what a waste of material
I have been sitting on the fence over a new lathe for the last year now, finally jumped on to the side that says 'buy one'
I'll be ordering it from Germany after Xmas, lets call it a late chrissy present.
Thinking about the wasted material, could you not mount a hole cutter in the tail stock and bore out a good portion to be set aside for future projects, in essence take a plug of material from the centre of the bar?