Hello again from Bob Monaghan,
I hate to throw anything away that looks like it can be used again. Yesterday (Sunday July 3, 2011) I was at my shop and I saw a couple of junk Ford Truck drag links and a Tug steering shaft that I tucked away in the corner a while ago. I decided to take a look at them and see what I could make out of them. I took a drag link and cut it off just outside of the hole that the tie rod end fits into, and cut the other end off about 15 inches long. Then I chucked it up in the lathe and drilled a center hole in the end with the tie rod end hole in it, then turned it around and drilled a center hole in the other end. Next I set up the lathe to turn between centers and attached a lathe dog to the tie rod end, end. Now it is ready to start turning. I turned it down to where it just cleaned up. I removed the cutting tool and installed the Knurling tool and knurled about 5 inches of the end to create a grip on the end and removed it from the lathe.
For the next operation I cut a small piece out of the side of the tie rod end hole to open it up just a little smaller than the diameter of the hole. I put the bar in the vise and with a hand held grinder smoothed the rough parts where it was cut. I took some photos of it and now I will try to post the photos so you can see the finished product.
Thank you for reading this post, Bob