"Leo Lichtman" wrote in message
...
Also, remember that the new spindles do not have to be exact. When
they are in place, no one will be able to hold one up to another for
comparison.

Now let me tell you how I do this kind of job. I have a laser
pointer mounted to my headstock on a parallelogram linkage. The
laser beam is vertical, and can be moved over various parts of the
spindle I am doing. I start by mounting a good spindle between
centers, I point the laser at a spot that I want to reproduce, i.e.
the botom of a "V" or cove, or the top of a curve. I then mount each
of my new pieces between centers, one at a time, of course, and turn
the feature to match the laser setting. Then, back to the sample
spindle, select another salient point, and gop through the sequence
again.

After you've got all the main diameters and positions established, it
is very easy to go back and fair in the joining curves.

I think this is faster than working from a template--you don't have
to keep checking. You can cut directly to the size and position
indicated by the laser.

BTW, if you go this route, keep the laser pointer around. You will
find many uses for it, which I will not go into here. This idea got
me "Tip of the Year" award from AAW a few years back. I won a cap.


Leo,

That's one helluva of an idea... I just checked the AAW site trying to
find a reference to this (and maybe a picture) but apparently they
don't have an archive for Tips that I could find. Do you know of any
site that may have a picture or a drawing of your "parallelogram
linkage" ? I just can't get my mind wrapped around how this works.

Bob S.