On Thu, 28 Dec 2006 20:27:17 -0700, "Terry Houchen"
wrote:
I have a stairway and railing around the upper opening which is going to
require about 92 oak (balusters) spindles. There was a post some time ago I
believe in this group about using wire or metal setup on the back side of
your lathe. I can't remember all the particulars and have looked in the
archives but maybe I'm not using the right search. So, if anyone remembers
the post would you please fill me in. Also, is making that many worth while
or should I just buy them. Thank you Terry
Depends on how ambitious and gung-ho you are about spindle turning,
but I'd buy them. I could easily see turning stair spindles getting
really old after ten or fifteen of them, and then letting them sit in
a corner of the shop to gather dust.
As far as duplicators go, I recently ran across a really interesting
design that I've been considering knocking together for myself.
http://www.stripersonline.com/surfta...d.php?t=448454
There are a couple of different versions of this floating around,
mostly for making fishing lures, but a guy could probably scale up
pretty easily by bolting a piece of 3/4" plywood to the ways for the
duplicator to ride on, and use a strip of plexiglass with the pattern
cut in it as a guide. Don't know how well it works, but the principle
seems simple and intuitive enough, and it's certainly less expensive
than buying one from a manufacturer, though the setup would take a
little longer.
If you go this route, and need cutters for it, check he
http://www.jlindustrial.com/
I think I'd probably go for drill rod, and grind a cutter profile into
it for ease of re-sharpening, but it seems a lot of guys like using
round inserts.
As a really interesting thought, a guy could almost use this style
duplicator for making sets of bowls... turn the outsides of every
piece as shown in the pictures, then clamp a different pattern for the
inside of the bowls on the bed and do those as well. I don't know if
any of the commerical ones do that, but I figure this one would.