Wood carving duplicator

[barnol]

Has anyone used something similar to one of these?
http://www.wood-carver.com
Do they produce an acurate copy of the original....could be the answer to my life of boring retirement.
From the looks of it, I could knock one up in a week or two and the wife would see me even less;)

[The Big O]

Make one Barnol, see this one I made last year. Works really well and all made of scraps. The linear bearings are the dearest part. Look out on your street verge pickup days or gareage sales for an old exercise bench, you might get them free. All the brackets are off old computer monitor swivel stands. As long as the pin is the same size as the router bit it will copy exactly.
regards, Lionel





http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=13978

[barnol]

Thanks for that Big O, I will be definately be putting one together very soon. I had thought about using 50mm x 5mm square tube for the rails with the corners at the top and turning down some aluminium rollers with 45 degree "V" cut in them instead of the round tube....I've got a couple of 5 metre lengths of it lying around.
Also, do you think it would carve up polystyrene foam with the same accuracy? I also do hobby metal casting and thought it would be ideal for reproducing 3D replicas of things to be made using the lost foam method.

[The Big O]

It will carve anything a router will cut. I've never tried polystyrene. I used a drill chuck for the pin holder. Secret is to have the router tip level with, and horizontal to, the pin tip at all times. The old car scissor jack was good for levelling the router at different heights and the plunge mechanism on the router adjusts the height. One router handle is removed. The aluminium housing on the router fence is used to attach it to the swivelling bracket. A slot is cut in the bracket to secure the router by the handle hole once the depth of cut is set.
You need good clamps or fixing devices to hold your work (4" nails?)
Sounds confusing but as long as you have xyz movement and angle adjustment and lots of handy junk in your shed you can make it. The duplicarver has no angle adjustment.
regards, Lionel.

[Bob Willson]

Hi barnol
If you do make one of these, would you please take lots of photographs (with explanations) of the process and put it up on the board?