I've got a 16 inch turret (an older smaller way of doing things) on a 20" swing lathe with a 12" chuck.
I suppose the larger the diameter of your turret, the better off you would be. But in practical terms, I can use maybe one bar in every adjacent tool position (or skip one), then use all turning tools in the other half of the turret. This would depend if the bars have to clear merely the jaws, or the entire chuck, as well. Spreading the bars out equally around the turret would actually decrease the usable tool slots in most instances.
Normally, I'd try to use bars that are nearly the same length if possible, as this helps eliminate one source of interference between bar lengths.
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