Anyone Wants To Take It For A Spin? What A Waste..

the picture I gave just gives you the idea. in this instance there could only be one half center (or point) on the end of the piece with a cent in between the two to keep from marking up the end of the piece you are cutting. the other end of the piece would be in the chuck turning it; or I suppose ,depending on how light a cut you are making, be in the setup illustrated. this is done on a long piece of rod because it tends to vibrate and not cut with a smooth finish. to set your machine at zero, you lightly touch the cutting tool to the end of the piece with the lathe running, then you pull the tool towards you, (there are your marks). in this instance they did that on the cent, possibly because the piece was a smaller diameter than the cent. the flattened parts on the other side are from the pressure to the half center.

yes, that is not where the cent would have been. if you look at the image I posted on pg 1, the live center could also be a 3 or 4 jaw chuck. the other end where it says half center; if you wanted to protect the "work" piece, you would sandwich a cent between the "work" and half center, without having drilled a center hole in the piece and having already made the finishing cut on the face.