hey thanks a lot guys,
Your centre drilling problem might be you have the ram out too far. Get the saddle closer to the chucki'm not all there on terminology yet... is the ram the threaded piece with the morse taper that telescopes out of the tailstock that you stick centers, drill chucks, etc. in? I make sure to keep that under an inch past the point where it breaks the taper's hold on the drill chuck, but I didn't do the same with the work piece. It was about 10 inches of rod, and I think I had atleast 7 inches of that sticking out in front of the chuck

that would cause my problem, wouldn't it? Cause more length = more gyration of the true center point on the end you're trying to drill?
TC tips are highly developed as to material and geometry some are specificaly design for just one application and material, if your using the wrong tip you can get bad results, its suprising how easily they can lose their edge if they are used wrong, either change the tip or grind your own HSS tool up. Make sure you've been using a general purpose tip that will meet the needs of most hobby machinist.Most guys in there seem to just use whatever tip is on there when they need to turn something, so it makes more sense now why most of them are in crap condition. How much should one expect to pay for "pretty nice" TC inserts? Does price vary depending on the type of metal they are meant to turn? If it isn't excessive, I might get a few to call my own that I can take with me only when I'm working.
One other question I had (right now) about turning:I have a piece of scrap aluminum that I want to use to make the flywheel for my engine... it's square stock, about 3"x3" by 5" long. Would it be acceptable to mill off the corners (making it into a hexagonal prism) and then use the lathe from there? Is this dangerous/hard on the tooling? If so, what is the correct procedure for preparing square stock for lathe working?
thanks again,
-Jon