John,
I bought 18 cans of beer at New Year, there are 16 left, and I could only manage 1/2 a can before throwing it away, my mate had the other one. So if anyone visits, there is beer here, it might be a bit out of date, but who is worried about dates on a can.
The way I showed with the plate, IMHO is the way to try things like this out. Can be chopped and changed about to get the right position without any damage to the lathe at all. A bit of plate must be cheaper than a new cross slide.
I think I have explained before about why I chose this lathe, it was basically the largest one I could fit into the space I had, plus with it being a new model based on a 15 year or so old design, there couldn't be much wrong with it mechanically, as they should have sorted those out years ago. What I didn't realise was that it wasn't the old design that caused any problems, but the 'new' bits they fitted to bring it up to date. Mainly chuck guard, coiled leadscrew cover, DRO head fitment and Chesters own conversion to double the range of spindle speeds the machine had.
After a few months of gentle persuasion from myself, the leadscrew cover was removed and a new, much larger chuck guard was fitted at their factory (to a new lathe, which was then swapped with my old one, which also had a few manufacturing faults). All problems have now been addressed except for the drive belt swapover. That will eventually be remedied when I can get welding facilities organised to weld up the tension system I have designed for for belt swapping (a thing that is not required on your machine).
Once that mod has been done, apart from making sure the threading is up to scratch, this machine will be, for me, the dogs dangly bits. More accurate, powerful and easy to use than anything I envisioned I would ever need.
So I hope you can now realise, after getting the machine to such a good state, I am very reluctant to drill holes willy nilly all over it, and is why I attempt to stop people doing the same things to their machines, by suggesting other methods to do the job.
If I do a mod on this lathe, it has to work first time, if I can't guarantee that to myself, it doesn't get done.
I use that rule for all my machines, and any I work on.
You have basically the same machine as I have, and even though you bought it as a 'second thought', you have in your possession, IMHO, a lathe, that if looked after, will satisfy all your needs, and last you a lifetime.
Now is the time for my power nap, might be surfing again about 3am BST.
John