What is this thing?

[Jamie Straw]

A lathe attachment with steel "fingers" that fall into stock at preset diameters as seen in this video. No, I don't need one, but very curious.

 

[hockenbery]

I don’t know its name but it is a type of caliper device.

A friend used one on production runs of balusters etc.

The fingers are attached to a long mounting rod that fixes onto the lathe.
The fingers can be positioned along the rod where needed and set to fall through at a specified diameter.
Once set up all the parting cuts can be made at each finger without having to use a caliper.

My friend used calipers to do the parting on the first one then adjusted a finger on the parting cut.
His device had a place to put the spindle being duplicated so he could easily see the turning required to connect the partings.

 

[Tim Dunbar]

be very handy for production turners!!

 

[Gregory Hickman]

The above was my immediate thought looking at this. The time it would take to setup makes sense for a production environment. For a hobby turner I don't see the advantage, don't we turn for the enjoyment not speed.

 

[Adrian Wilson]

Sometimes called a 'spindle dancer' jig, or a duplicating finger jig. I haven't needed one yet, but it is filed away for when I do.

 

[RichColvin]

@Richard Findley uses these often in his videos. He’s a production turner in the UK.

 

[John K Jordan]

If I decide some day to be a production turner, will somebody please put me out of my misery? That sounds too much like work.

 

[Gregory Hickman]

That sounds too much like work.

You can say that again. Also sounds like work for no real monetary gain.

 

[John K Jordan]

When I want to make identical things I make a story stick - marked off with distances and diameters, hold against the wood and mark with a pencil then use calipers. Sorry, don't have a picture of one but a picture of the result of using one on simple turnings. Not perfect, but good enough for me. And far more important, my Lovely Bride likes them and has used them every day since 2007.

Cocobolo and Dogwood.


JKJ

 

[Gregory Hickman]

When I want to make identical things I make a story stick - marked off with distances and diameters, hold against the wood and mark with a pencil then use calipers. Sorry, don't have a picture of one but a picture of the result of using one on simple turnings. Not perfect, but good enough for me. And far more important, my Lovely Bride likes them and has used them every day since 2007.

Cocobolo and Dogwood.
View attachment 70805

JKJ

Speaking of story boards I was watching a video by a production turner, woodturner21 on YouTube, who used a story board with pins. He would just touch it to the workpiece and scribe the marks right on it i thought it was a brilliant idea.

 

[R Henrickson]

Speaking of story boards I was watching a video by a production turner, woodturner21 on YouTube, who used a story board with pins. He would just touch it to the workpiece and scribe the marks right on it i thought it was a brilliant idea.

Marking out patterns with pins is a technique whih is widespread among production turners and has probably used been for centuries.. Turners making the thousands of detailed small spindles for mashrabiyas (huge window lattices used widely in houses 400-100 years ago in Cairo) have used them. I do a lot of spindle turning though not on production scale (see the Tree Challenge) and often use story sticks.

 

[Roger Wiegand]

A variant on the pin theme is to sketch the profile of your spindle on a board and make notches in the edge at the inflection points. Hold the board up to the blank and put your pencil in each V notch to mark each point.

 

[John K Jordan]

The pin or notch technique is nice to mark the key positions on a smoothed spindle before shaping, especially for production. For custom pieces I like to so something similar but use a simple piece of card stock. I mark the critical positions down the edge and write down the diameters at each point to let me set calipers at each marked point to size with a parting tool. If it were a longer spindle, I'd use a thin strip of wood instead of card stock.

For example, the gentleman who tunes my piano had a "tuning hammer" with a handle with a shape and feel he loved, but the handle was plastic and the hardware wasn't ideal for tuning grand pianos. I salvaged the shaft and special tuning socket from an old tuning hammer and made a new handle to fit his hand.

I first took careful measurements of key points of of his existing handle and made a straight story stick with the positions marked along one edge then marked the diameter needed at each position. The diameters are simply short straight lines drawn from the edge to set the caliper.

It was a simple matter to transfer the positions to the cylinder with a pencil, then use a parting tool with a caliper to define each diameter. When the shape is important, I also like to use a pencil to mark the bottom of each depth groove so I don't accidentally shave a spot too deep with the skew. Cut until the pencil marks are almost gone then usually use hand scrapers to refine the shape.

I turned the handle shape from B&W ebony, turned a tapered steel ferrule on the metal lathe, drilled and shaped for the hardware, then reversed and mounted on a stick to shape and smooth the bottom. I took the pieces to the guy so he could set the shaft length to suit him.
Epoxy and done! He loves it.


Test fit on my piano. I'll tune other's pianos if they have just a bad note or two but leave mine to the experts!
A complete tuning takes well over an hour, maybe two. For those keeping score, in the '90s a professional tuning around here cost about $35. Today it's nearly $150. And qualified tuners are now hard to find.

JKJ

(edit: misspelled "hammer"!)

 

[Michael Anderson]

And far more important, my Lovely Bride likes them and has used them every day since 2007.

Cocobolo and Dogwood.

Forgive my ignorance, but what are those? They are beautiful objects, but I’m curious about their function?

 

[Richard Findley]

The video is of me turning, posted by a customer. They’re called duplicating fingers (I do sell them if anyone is interested) and speed up production work considerably. Not just for spindle work either.

I fully understand people not wanting to be production turners, although most say they’d find it repetitive and boring but have you seen some of the arty turnings that take tens and even hundreds of hours to make - no thank you!! It’s just a different kind of challenge in this wonderful craft in which there’s something for everyone!

Richard

 

[Lou Jacobs]

Forgive my ignorance, but what are those? They are beautiful objects, but I’m curious about their function?

Pepper mills?

 

[John K Jordan]

Forgive my ignorance, but what are those? They are beautiful objects, but I’m curious about their function?

These?


So sorry. I should have said. Those are my first attempt at pepper and salt grinders. Since I'm not the brightest candle in the room, I made, er, let me remember..., ah..., the dark one for pepper and the lighter one for the salt!! Yeah, that sounds right. 🙂

The Dogwood is from our farm. The Cocobolo is not. (Ha!)

Actually, the cocobolo was almost free. Many years ago a guy who had acquired a big room full of wood decided to go into the business of selling wood. I noticed several pieces marked "Claro Walnut from California". I bought a small piece and tried it then came back and bought everything like it he had. Later when I got into wood identification with a microscope I discovered it was cocobolo. If I had known what cocobolo smelled like when cut, I'd have known immediately.

There were two big pieces, both priced at $25. I could barely lift either of these with both arms. Based on a cocobolo log I saw at a dealer, just one piece was probably worth at least $600. One would be good for bowls. I'm using these slowly, a small piece at a time - at the current rate, I'll have to leave most of it to someone in my will.

I give these boxes to mothers of baby girls. I figure they can hold diaper pins at first, bugs or pennies she collects someday, then later for jewelry.
So far no one has turned one down.

And remember when fidget spinners were all the rage? Cocobolo, ebony, and brass.

Great for finger tops.


(Oops, got off topic again - blame it on the ADHD.)

I've since made more salt/pepper grinders, different designs, for friends and family. For some reason, people like using them. Oh, I figured it out - they are people who like to eat.

JKJ

 

[Brian Gustin]

Forgive my ignorance, but what are those? They are beautiful objects, but I’m curious about their function?

I'd take a guess and say a pair of salt & pepper grinders? It was my first thought when I read that post.....

Ah never mind I see JKJ already got it answered.. (I guess I guessed right)

 

[Isaac Litster]

Claro Walnut from California". I bought a small piece and tried it then came back and bought everything like it he had. Later when I got into wood identification with a microscope I discovered it was cocobolo. If I had known what cocobolo smelled like when cut, I'd have known immediately.

I had a similar case. A local woodturner who was too old to continue with the vast wood hoard he had donated to all of the turners in town, and I got a piece that was labeled "claro walnut" in marker on one side, and in much older, faded pencil, it was labeled striped ebony (or Macassar Ebony). I made sure to put that somewhere special. The same guy gave my high school shop a large bowl blank of mesquite, which my shop teacher gave a beginner turner to turn their first bowl, thinking it was walnut. He never turned it, and wasn't super interested, but it's quite common for the misidentification of wood. Good to know how to identify the correct wood.

 

[Michael Anderson]

So sorry. I should have said. Those are my first attempt at pepper and salt grinders.

Oh gosh, seems so obvious now!! 😂 The power of assumptions…I just assumed it was something make-up related haha.