# Home Made Lathe Duplicator



## littlebuddha

Well i have some work to do which has a lot of parts that are the same so thought i might cut down on some time by making myself a copier to do most of the work then finish by hand. Thought i might as well make it well for future use. Its made from laminating some mdf, some parts are then given some superglue treatment to make harder as in the part where the tool goes, the cutter tip is a carbide lathe tip, some beach handles. just got to make up my temples know. LB..

http://www.shapewood.co.uk


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## turnedon

Nice job Budda, What kind of cutting tip did you use?
Have you tried it out yet? How do you attach the
template for the duplicator to follow.
I think I'll have to make one.

Rich from NH


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## Mysteriouswoodsmen

and i was just thinking of how to make one. nice post littlebuddha. Some pics of how it's used and how to attatche it to the template would be great as well.


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## Mitch Cholewinski

little b
Nice job b. I could of used that last couple days I just made 30 duplicate handles for my drawers. Have you tried this to see if it does what you want it to do? Looks like you put a lot of work into this. Looks real nice mate. Mitch


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## littlebuddha

Hi i have a few different ways of useing this and it depends on the type of lathe bed you have, mine is the flat two bar type has about 1 1/2" gap, i have a piece of mdf that fits this and another under it about 3". I make the half template of what i want and leave an extra 1" more this gets screwd to the piece that comes up from the bed, making sure you have a centre line on that 1 1/2".
Then i have a mdf bed with perf metal to help the tool slide or you could use formica. Just make sure that you have the tool so it is just a bit above centre or you will not get the tool to cut, and if you are a bit below then you could have some problems and have it bit in and ripe your work out, and or get hurt so make sure you set it all up right and nothing is lose, the size of the duplicator depends on the type of lathe and the hight of your tailstock centre, when i get time next week i will put it all together with pics and how to, for anyone that wants it, most of you i think will crack it. Templates are half of the item you want to make (make them good take your time) and make sure that you set them on the centre line of your lathe. You could have a look at the shopsmith site, theres uses a follower above the cutter, there are a few copycats around the net just do a search on google and you should find more info if you need it before i can get this done, ill do it in a pdf form. I hope you can follow that.:smile: 
And yes it works okay not the best finish but it gets you there and then finish of with some grit, or a bit of rework if ness, it does save some time, just make sure you concertrate on what you are doing its not like useing a chisel and if you don't set it up right be sure you will get a catch, and it can be more scary to, and yes i have done it, it only takes once for me to learn, my thumb :thumbsup: :furious:  was sore for a couple of days. cheers LB


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## turnedon

*What's in a name*

Just a curious question, where does the name littlebudda
come from? Quite a unique nick name.

Rich from NH


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## littlebuddha

Good ques, i got it sometime back from friends and fam, i have an interest in and save jade, also im a bigish built guy, thats how it cam about, its amazing the amout of people over the years just think i am an indian guy have had a lot of racial remarks, daft what people asume when on the internet. Fam mainly call me a little bugger.:thumbsup: LB keep shaving.


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## Bill Bolen

Impressive "Sir"! did you get the shape for the cutter handle from a plane tote? Sounds/looks like it will work like a charm....Bill...


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## littlebuddha

The shape is just one of those things that comes up Bill, just did not want one big block. LB..


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## ThomasOSB

*Dimensions*

LittleBuddha,

Do you have any measurements and/or pics of the process when you made your lathe duplicator. I am fairly new to woodworking and need all the help I can get.
Thanks for the post.

Pax,
Fr. Thomas


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## john lucas

Good timing. I may have to build 26 little matching finials for a guy and I didn't want to spend the time it takes to match them by hand. If I get the order (it's one of those things from a friend or I would simply tell them I don't want to do it) I will build my version of the copier. I thought I might build 2. One to rough out blanks with and one to do the final cleaning up. I think a second pass taking less meat off and using a new sharper blade might make a cleaner finished product and require less sanding.
I like your model. I have some of the same carbide cutters in my metal lathe kit.


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## littlebuddha

Hello all been a while, have been busy building my new home so not had any time to get on but starting to get a little more time thought i would drop by say hi. What do i find but an old thread brough to life. Hi John have you started yet on your copier. Fun as well as i am just doing a four poster bed. Will get around to doing some pics. Hope everyone is haveing fun. LB :thumbsup:


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## fanon99

really helpful, thank you


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## john lucas

Actually I now have the Vega duplicator. It is one sweet tool. I have not been a fan of duplicators until I used this one. The cutter is really sweet. It's carbide and for lack of a better description is canoe shaped. It cuts very clean. I can easily start sanding at 220 grit. 
I turned 48 small spindles with 3/8" tenons. I measured the tenons to see how accurate they are. They were within .010" of dead on. Every single one of them. I was impressed.
I found that the whole system flexed slightly. I would make all the cuts to get it down to size, always cutting from high point to low point. Once I got it down to size I would make one more pass pushing on the assembly. This last pass would hardly change the size at all but would clean up everything. 
It's an expensive machine but I can highly recommend it.
http://www.vegawoodworking.com/


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