Jeff Burris
06-21-2021, 4:27 PM
Hello,
I turn wooden musical flutes and, for precision tuning purposes, the OD needs to be very consistent within about .005" along a length over a foot long.
100% by hand this is possible but not a lot of fun. I try various tricks but it will never be efficient.
Before long I will need an affordable way to just cut a nice, long, consistent diameters, swiftly and accurately.
Using a basic duplicator with just a v-cutter on it isn't what I have in mind as, really, you need to rough it pretty finely first anyway to do well on many woods.
Vega offers a duplicator that they sell their own accessory for which allows you to mount your power router instead of the v-cutter.
This makes wonderfully short work of the roughest blank, and I know three flute makers that love them 100% in lieu of a CNC on a different price scale.
The Vega duplicator itself, however, costs over a whopping $1000.
I've seen it. It's not like it's heads and tails quality over other duplicators... it's just reliable and has become popular and gone way up in price like 30% for the same thing.
Does anyone else know of any other alternatives that do the same thing, a decent duplicator that has a router mount accessory available?
I'd prefer to not make a project out of building a custom thing. I'd like to buy it, mount my router, and start filling orders faster.
Thanks for your time --
And be safe... my eyes focused a little wrongly and I lost a finger tip a while back, thinking an endmill bit was sitting still, off and stationary. My dust collector (shop vac) was loud and I couldn't hear the mill whirring. Your brain can even fill in blanks if you don't see something properly (didn't have my readers on under my shield) ... I thought I even saw the endmill flutes sitting there, motionless, when I reached in to grab the banjo bridge I'd just finished.... the ER learned some people machine parts at 3:30 AM.
Jeff
I turn wooden musical flutes and, for precision tuning purposes, the OD needs to be very consistent within about .005" along a length over a foot long.
100% by hand this is possible but not a lot of fun. I try various tricks but it will never be efficient.
Before long I will need an affordable way to just cut a nice, long, consistent diameters, swiftly and accurately.
Using a basic duplicator with just a v-cutter on it isn't what I have in mind as, really, you need to rough it pretty finely first anyway to do well on many woods.
Vega offers a duplicator that they sell their own accessory for which allows you to mount your power router instead of the v-cutter.
This makes wonderfully short work of the roughest blank, and I know three flute makers that love them 100% in lieu of a CNC on a different price scale.
The Vega duplicator itself, however, costs over a whopping $1000.
I've seen it. It's not like it's heads and tails quality over other duplicators... it's just reliable and has become popular and gone way up in price like 30% for the same thing.
Does anyone else know of any other alternatives that do the same thing, a decent duplicator that has a router mount accessory available?
I'd prefer to not make a project out of building a custom thing. I'd like to buy it, mount my router, and start filling orders faster.
Thanks for your time --
And be safe... my eyes focused a little wrongly and I lost a finger tip a while back, thinking an endmill bit was sitting still, off and stationary. My dust collector (shop vac) was loud and I couldn't hear the mill whirring. Your brain can even fill in blanks if you don't see something properly (didn't have my readers on under my shield) ... I thought I even saw the endmill flutes sitting there, motionless, when I reached in to grab the banjo bridge I'd just finished.... the ER learned some people machine parts at 3:30 AM.
Jeff