Duplicator

[Dahl Troy Perry]

do anyone use a Duplicator on there lathe to make perfect copys of pens or pepper grinders or are Duplicators a bad word and if so what is a good and cheap Duplicator to use for pepper mills would like to make matched pairs?

Dahl

[Kenneth Hertzog]

Yes I've used a duplicator to make exact copies.
got mine from pen state
its slow going but you can achieve the basic shape
and finish with either sandpaper or hand tools and then sand.

ken

[Gerold Griffin]

I have a Grizzly duplicator (they call it a copy attachment) for my lathe. If I had to make spindles for kitchen chairs I would set it up. For one or two copys I would leave it sit. It would take longer to set it up than to do it free hand. Also as a thought you could make a template to check your piece against while still on the lathe. Duplicators seem to leave a really ruff surface and you need to do a lot of sanding, probably be okay for peppermills if you had the quanity to make. As for pens I would like to try that before making the purchase. Due to the amount of sanding you would have to do and matching it up to the pen parts you may want to use the template idea.