Make chips however makes you the most happy.What's your beef with turning on centers? They are, after all, centers. Until fairly recently, nearly all rifles chambered outside the factory were done through a steady. There just weren't any small (under 14-16") lathes that could go through the headstock before China/PM/Fox/Grizzly came out with their "gunsmith" model. You know, I just don't see balancing the barrel over a knife edge in the headstock and tilting it back and forth with jack screws to be a "good" method. At least with centers/steady, the axis is easy to set true and can be counted on. But I do resent the "tone" that you say, "eew, you're turning on centers, nevermind" with. It's closed minded.
Amen!Make chips however makes you the most happy.
I want the first few inches of bore in front of where my chamber is to be perfectly in line with the chamber. I also want to clock the barrel so it points straight up when it's screwed to the gun.
The chamber end being on a "knife edge" isn't a problem. It's plenty rigid.
For shorter barrels that wont fit in my headstock (less than ~22 inch) - check out my thread on chambering short barrels. I want to be able to gimble both ends of the barrel.
I wont start an argument and say my way is better than anyone elses, but if you look at the top gunsmiths today (ignoring the old grumpy dinosaurs that live on benchrest central) - you'll find they all insist on super rigid setups in the headstock. Modern methods might have something to do with modern records being set.