Of conventional design the No. 2 Morse taper tailstock was locked to the bed by a captive lever - the only drawback being the method of locking the barrel: a slot in the casting closed down by a clamping screw. Whilst this arrangement would normally have weakened with age as the parts wore (and ended up with a broken casting as the parts were over tightened) in the SEE the slot was almost the same length as the spindle, an arrangement that spread the load and allowed greater clamping forces to be used.