Lathe Duplicator - your thoughts and comments please.

[opticsguy]

Always been interested in trying out a lathe duplicator and one has recently come up for sale, attached to another lathe.  Have already asked the seller if he/she is willing to sell the duplicator only and waiting a response.
The duplicator I am looking at is made by Viel and is about 48+" long with an attached grinder with cutter. Looks well made.
So, finally to my question;  What large (not pen sized) duplicators do you use and what are your thoughts and comments about them?
Thank you for your educated reply.

[MichaelMouse]

Always been interested in trying out a lathe duplicator and one has recently come up for sale, attached to another lathe.  Have already asked the seller if he/she is willing to sell the duplicator only and waiting a response.
The duplicator I am looking at is made by Viel and is about 48+" long with an attached grinder with cutter. Looks well made.
So, finally to my question;  What large (not pen sized) duplicators do you use and what are your thoughts and comments about them?
Thank you for your educated reply.

Trying is fine, but after leaving the school duplicator behind I found I could make similar enough legs without.   Unless you're making stairs or chairs, no need for a duplicator.  The best have a crank and chain for advancing the cutter along the pattern, and can be expensive.

[hairy]

This guy rolled his own.

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/285514

[chips ahoy]

Bought one,tried it,took it back.Get much better results using my calipers.Total waste of money.

Mel

[Arlin Eastman]

I did have the Vegas 12" at one time and did enjoy it but it was to small.  They sell the 24" and 36" and maybe in the future for everyone I might get the 36" but it costs over $750 to $900 do not remember exactly.

[MichaelS]

They are neat, but unless you're doing production runs (baseball bats, spindles, legs, etc.) they are of limited use and a pain to setup on the lathe if you plan to store it off.

Vega makes a great one, haven't heard of the Viel, but as noted - the good ones are chain and spring driven to avoid errors and make it as operator friendly / repeatably accurate as possible.

An important item to note - the cutters are pretty much ALL scrapers and require either a fair bit of honing/maintenance or a bucketload of sanding depending on species. You will have tearout, just a question of how much and what you're making.

I can't justify one myself, in spite of my overwhelming tool lust and acquisition habit


Best,
Michael

[handi]

I had one. It is very useful for production runs, but takes time and care to set up, and you still need to re-turn the results if you want sharp corners between features.

I rebuilt mine with a new follower that matched the cutter in shape. This makes a big difference. 

It works best running the cutter from high spots to lower, not lower to higher.

I had to turn two different type of spindles for a project, 12 of one, 15 of another. The duplicator was great for this, but I sold it with my large Craftsman lathe, and have not missed it. I am making a series of trays, and have made 8 of the 12 needed by hand using a story stick and calipers.

[Gregory of Sherwood Forest]

I have a Vega duplicator and actually like it. It does take a bit of setup, but easy if you follow the directions, and it'll work great for you.

Occasionally, I make lots of copies of handles, knobs, legs, etc.. and I find that I can now install the duplicator in just a few minutes. The first time I set it up and got everything perfect, I drew a few setup lines on the parts and on my ways and now it goes on quickly. Worth it even if I'm only making 5 runs.

I also recommend the carbide cutter for the Vega's. Pretty nice upgrade for the money. Using that and giving it a quick hone with an XX Fine diamond card occasionally means very little downtime. I don't even have to remove the cutter from the duplicator to do it. Not essential, though.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

A woodworker/turner on the canadian woodworking forum has a duplicator that he has used a lot, it is the tool used that makes a very big difference in the outcome, he made a video to show the working and his work finish he does get.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enusth6SRvA

[oreos40]

Just as in traditional turning the tool used is the key. proper shape proper grind. some duplicators can only be safely used as scrapers,but not all. many factors contribute to their use or failure.