Has anyone used one of the duplicators for the jet mini lathes from Penn State Ind. ? Just wondering if they were worth the money for turning seats and maybe pen blanks.

Thanks,
Steve

No, they're not. At least not in most cases. I have one of the Vega duplicators. It's a well thought out and made machine. But there are some inherent problems all such duplicators in that they cut by a scraping action rather than by a shearing action. So, the very hard woods and many of the acrylic materials that rod builders use just don't cut very well on these duplicators. Soft woods and cork are a breeze, of course, but beyond that I haven't found many other materials that I thought my unit worked well with.

..........

Steve one other thing by the time you set it up position correctly you could turn two or more pens free hand-ok if you want to turn say 10 slimlines all the same not very good if making changes
John

Thanks Tom and John!

Steve

I used the duplicator like the one you are stating for years. I never had a problem with mine. I got out of pen turning about a year ago, but if I got back into it again i would get a duplicator. I even made my own blanks for the duplicating machine. This is something you can look at when you get into it. I also used a carbide tip and not the cheap tip which was given to you in the original kit. I turned every thing from Acrylic, Antler to stabalized material. I even turned some bowling ball blanks. I am not sure if the guys mentioned above had a different set up but it did not take me but about 5 minutes to set up the duplicator and I could change the pattern in a minute or so using the same 7mm shaft. You just nee to remember though, you can not do it all in one pass, it takes quite a few.

I used a diamond point bit.

The initial set up took a while, but after that changing patterns took just a couple minutes. But I never had much success on the harder materials. The folks at Vega that I spoke with said it was not designed for very hard woods or plastics.

If you got good results with your's that's great. I was never able to do so on anything other than soft woods and corks. On those, it works fine.

...............

I have to go with Tom K. on this one,, I had the Vega, set up was fine and easy, but just didn't work for me for inserts.. I put it on @#$%& in less than a week after I bought it.

There may be something out there for the harder materials, but I don't know which one it may be.

I went back and did some research. I was using the carbatech duplicator, not the Vega. Never messed with that one. Had great luck with the one I used. Sorry yall had problems with yours.

What is a duplicator?

Paul@soonercustomrod.com

Thanks for all the feed back. I was seriously thinking of getting one for turning seats and am thinking of getting into turning pens also.

Thanks,
Steve