Hello Dave in the Emerald Isle,
Thank you, but the idea isn't really that novel. It was a furniture commission job, the bars were 16mm grade 304 stainless steel 800mm long, to be drilled and tapped M4 at one end, there were I think 12 such bars to do.
It worked very well, the steady at the tailstock end was only there as a loose support, all the thrust for drilling came from the X slide. Setting up was a doddle using the co-axial indicator which allows viewing from one side over a full rotation around the work. It had been a christmas present to myself the previous year. I did test it against the more traditional method with a finger DTI, using a mirror to view the difficult sides; there was really no contest.
Regards
Brian