Lathe duplicator? Router carriage? Whatsa matter, Phish, don't you like to
turn?

Barry


"Phisherman" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 09:12:21 -0700, "buck"
wrote:

I am a novice at woodturning and could use some guidance. I have a 2.5"
square of laminated poplar 16" long. I want to shape it so it ends up as
a
tapered spindle 2.5" on one end and 1.5" at the other end. I do have an
extra inch on each end which could be wasted if necessary. My question is
... What is the best way to do this? I can see myself taking off too much
wood somewhere along the way and having to throw away the piece. Would
WWs
band saw it first? I will have to make four of them. I don't know how to
turn them so that they end up with a relatively consistant taper..... I
posted this at another forum also.....Any help appreciated.



There are several ways to do this. A lathe duplicator will do the job
quickly and your spindles will be the same. The cutting tool follows
a template that is cut from a piece of hardboard. The downside is
lathe duplicators can be rather expensive. Another option is to
build a carriage that clamps onto the bed and allows a router (fitted
with a core box bit) to run along a sloped track. In either case,
I would remove the excess on the table saw or band saw. I don't have
the extra bucks to buy a lathe duplicator, but have built "router
carriages" to make many tapered duplicate spindles. This setup can
actually be done without a lathe, using a friend to run an electric
drill to turn the piece while I move the router down the carriage at
the approximate rate of 5 seconds per inch of travel.