Looking for a lathe attachment

[Brian Sommers]

That allows a set diameter so I can make perfectly round legs that are repeatable I saw this on handcrafted America but I don't know what it's called. They ere using it to make chair legs

[John K Jordan]

That allows a set diameter so I can make perfectly round legs that are repeatable I saw this on handcrafted America but I don't know what it's called. They ere using it to make chair legs

What did this attachment look like? Did it duplicate a leg or pattern? Size key diameters?

You might repost this in the Turning section along with any other info you can think of.

JKJ

[Dave Lehnert]

Have a Shopsmith?
They are called a Lather Duplicator.

http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/catalog/latheduplicator.htm

[Brian Sommers]

While that would certainly be handy, that is not what I'm looking for.

Instead of holding your chisel like you normally do on the rest. This thing slid in place of your hands and chisel and I think they had to move it into the wood, but then it would stop cutting once it reached the set size.

[Thomas Canfield]

I have also seen a shaft parallel to ways of lathe with "flippers" of different lengths spaced at definite change in diameters. The flippers would ride on the turning until the diameter had been reduced to desired diameter and then fall clear indicating the desired diameter had been reached. Not very sophisticated but would work for simpler pieces.

[Marvin Hasenak]

I have also seen a shaft parallel to ways of lathe with "flippers" of different lengths spaced at definite change in diameters. The flippers would ride on the turning until the diameter had been reduced to desired diameter and then fall clear indicating the desired diameter had been reached. Not very sophisticated but would work for simpler pieces.
The "flippers" are called semaphores. There was an article in the December, 1999 issue of American Woodworker on how to make one. I found the written article on the Internet. I used to use a similar method, but not in years.

[Marvin Hasenak]

While that would certainly be handy, that is not what I'm looking for.

Instead of holding your chisel like you normally do on the rest. This thing slid in place of your hands and chisel and I think they had to move it into the wood, but then it would stop cutting once it reached the set size.

Dale Maxim made one, you find his info on this thread. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?180582-Low-Cost-Duplicator

[Doug Hepler]

Brian,

I have read that production turners sharpen one jaw of a wrench of the desired diameter to make it act like a scraper. I have not tried this.

When I make table legs I just cut the desired depth with a parting tool and use that to mark the diameters I want (you probably do this already). I use a calipers (or a cutout in a piece of Masonite, or a wrench) to measure my progress. Usually, my table legs have a profile and I use a template to make the profiles uniform. They rarely match perfectly but any small discrepancies are not apparent once they are part of the table. 346017346018

[John Keeton]

One of my best investments for the turning of repetitive work is the Galbert caliper. It is a real time saver.

[Paul Williams]

Here is a video of how to do it with an end wrench. https://vimeo.com/67922130

I remember seeing a tool that was basically the same idea on a larger scale that used a bedan or cut off tool held in a semi-circular sizing frame. You started the tool like you would any cutoff and cut until the frame dropped over the tenon, which caused the tool to stop cutting. I could not find it with a quick google search, but I bet looking at a few woodturning supply catalogs would turn one up.

[Kevin Hampshire]

Brian, are you talking about this for actual production turning or just to turn 4 legs for a table or two?

[Brice Rogers]

Brian,

Go to Google and type in "handcrafted america lathe duplicator" and then select "images". There are a bunch of things that seem to meet your description. This is but one of perhaps dozens of images that kind of fit your brief description. The first image shows the making of the template and the second one shows using the template to scrape away a spindle.



http://www.woodsmithplans.com/assets/img/plans/lathe-duplicator/detail1.jpghttps://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/46/fa/d2/46fad2bb821dbdb66b065123f75c2dc3.jpg