Carbide insert turning tools..

[Ed Aumiller]

Looking at using these in a duplicator, especially the diamond shaped one..
Have never used a carbide insert cutter before...

Any advice ?? Suggestions ??

Do the carbide inserts cut cleanly like a sharp gouge, etc ??



These are sold by "www.ncwoodturningtools.com" no affiliation, just using their picture..

[John K Jordan]

Looking at using these in a duplicator, especially the diamond shaped one..
Have never used a carbide insert cutter before...
Any advice ?? Suggestions ??
Do the carbide inserts cut cleanly like a sharp gouge, etc ??

You will find nearly religious disagreement on this. Those who have expertise on both carbide scrapers and sharp gouges know there is no comparison in the finish off the tool - the sharp gouges can give far better surfaces. Those who use carbide tools like this nearly all of the time seem satisfied with the surfaces they get. One difference may be the amount of sanding needed. Best thing is to get one or two to try and form your own opinion.

I have seen diamond shaped tips used on duplicators. The type of wood used can make a difference.

JKJ

[Ed Aumiller]

I am looking at them for use only in the duplicator.. do not like the rough cut from steel in the copier...

Made a cradle about 18 years ago that takes 30 spindles... want to make 2-3 more for great grandkids & church and not looking forward to making 90 spindles..

Realize will probably have to finish them by hand to get good results, but want the best I can get from copier.. to make it easier..

[roger wiegand]

I'd think about roughing them out with your duplicator and then making the finish cuts with a conventional skew or gouge. Sanding a scraped finish on 90 spindles would be no fun at all, plus there is the risk of losing the details during the sanding process.

[Robert Henrickson]

It would probably be more efficient to skip the duplicator -- it is not that difficult to turn multiple spindles to close to the same profile. After the first few, you will be able to turn close to the pattern by eye. If there are 30 spindles in a given project, no one will notice small variations from one to another. All the sanding and/or finish cuts after the duplicator would introduce variation from one spindle to another in any event.

[John K Jordan]

You might look at the carbide tools from Mike Hunter. http://huntertoolsystems.com/
These are extremely sharp dish cutters. They can be used in either the "cutting" mode like a sharp gouge, or the "scraping" mode. But since they are much sharper, even in the scraping mode we have found them to be superior to the types of cutters typical with the tools you showed. I don't think he sells a diamond-shaped pointed cutter but I could ask. His smallest round cutter is 6mm diameter. If your design needs sharp grooves, say at the ends of beads, you might be able to use a round cutter for the overall spindle then clean up just the grooves with a skew chisel.

Do you ever get down towards Knoxville? If so, if you stop in I can let you try the Hunter tools so you can see for yourself. I gave away my flat-topped carbide tools but I still have some new Easy Wood inserts that we could use to compare. It would be especially interesting to compare the new pointed Woodpeckers insert (discussed in another recent thread here) with a prototype pointed cupped cutter I have.

As mentioned, much depends the wood you choose and more depends on the design. Are there any pommels? A square to round transition in soft maple with a wide scraper can be a disaster but might be acceptable with a sharp point in harder wood. (Keep in mind that industrial duplicators often only take off only 1/8" or less each pass to minimizing chipping and tearout)

What about the steel or carbide cutters traditionally used with duplicators. Will those not work on your duplicator? They may need periodic sharpening but that's easy.

https://www.amazon.com/Rockler-Woodw.../dp/B00309ZO4U
https://www.amazon.com/Woodtek-Machi.../dp/B0090OC5L4

JKJ

[Ralf Kroning]

There are two main types of cutting actions with carbide inserts. The flat topped ones regardless of shape and the dished ones with a high rake mirror polished cutting edge (often round, diamond shaped or even sort of square) Most flat topped inserts are used in a scrapping manner, and the finish requires plenty of sanding usually. These inserts are easily sharpened with a diamond hone on the flat surface. The dished cutters are generally used to shear cut, and come from the metal working world where they are designed to cut aluminum. Finish is excellent, and comparable to a well presented gouge or skew. If the dished insert is round you can easily make a sharpening jig...a good place to look for the dished typed inserts is looking for inserts designed for cutting aluminum and finding them on the big auction site where they are usually available for a fraction of what the resellers of the woodturning world sell them for. Personally I would investigate the diamond shaped, dished inserts for your project. For a starting point look up Koroloy VCGT160408-AK

[Ed Aumiller]

Thanks to everyone for the good information... it is really appreciated...

Ralf, looked up the one you said... appears it will work, hopefully... ordered them but the are coming across the ocean and won't get here till Feb 2nd..

Do not intend to resharpen them... looks like they will give a shear cut which is what I was looking for ...

Ed

[Brice Rogers]

Through our local woodturning club, I took a tour of a local commercial wood turning business. They had an Italian-made commercial machine that was one of their duplicators. I found the cutter to be most interesting. It was made from some sort of hard metal (perhaps HSS or better) and it had the same shape that you would get if you took a roughly 2" x 2" x 1/8" square and bent it in the middle. Looking from the top as it cut the wood, it looked like an upside down Vee, cutting mainly from the center point of the Vee. So, it was producing a true shearing or slicing cut. I'm not positive if the cutting edge was on the centerline or slightly below center. It seemed to produce a fairly decent finish and was fast as blazes. The chips were nice looking. They were making long (like 6 to 10') spindles.