Fast cheap way to turn miniature balusters?

[Jim Underwood]

I need a fast cheap way to turn about 500 miniature balusters. They'll be about 3" tall by 1/4" square.

Got any suggestions?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Buy them online.

[Brian Kent]

Stick a little lathe in from of the TV and watch movies.

[Steve Peterson]

Ebay and Amazon appear to have 12 packs for about $6. Not sure if you can find bulk prices or even any style with 500 in stock. craftparts.com sells wooden spindles for around $0.24 each but not in the sizes you are looking for. woodcrafter.com and americanwoodcrafterssupply.com both have 3.5" by 0.5" spindles with 0.25" tenons for about $0.30 each in bulk.

What are you making that needs so many balusters? Could you just use segments of 0.25" dowels?

Steve

[Jim Underwood]

The client is making a custom dollhouse. It's going to have a lot of stairs.
The baluster profile will be similar to this Enkeboll baluster without the carving:
http://www.enkebolldesigns.com/produ...rn-xx-6xxx.htm
So you see that I cannot simply order them...

[Marvin Hasenak]

For this project, you can skip the fast and cheap requirements. My first recommendation is to research "Tom Walden miniature maker", you might want to buy his DVD of instructions, recommended but not necessary. The tricks are really worth the cost of the DVD's. Like using a precision drill press to make a wood milling machine to make fancy cabriole legs for doll house furniture.

You can do without a duplicator, but I wouldn't. I would start with a PSI duplicator, it is basically a copy of an Anker Duplicator, but they are no longer made. Walden used Taig lathe setups with Anker duplicators and brass cut out designs. I stumbled on one of his lathes a few years ago, did not need it then or now, but it has been a fun toy to play with.

When you fall off the deep end of making miniatures, you might want to consider taking one of his classes.

[roger oldre]

these are a little larger than yours. They take about a minute@. yours could possibly take less time. I asked in another forum for particulars. Type of wood plays a huge part in the small stuff. Most copiers are pretty clunky and take a lot of sanding. these would be best run in one direction with an appropriately sharpened cutter. similar to this

[Jim Underwood]

For this project, you can skip the fast and cheap requirements. My first recommendation is to research "Tom Walden miniature maker", you might want to buy his DVD of instructions, recommended but not necessary. The tricks are really worth the cost of the DVD's. Like using a precision drill press to make a wood milling machine to make fancy cabriole legs for doll house furniture.

You can do without a duplicator, but I wouldn't. I would start with a PSI duplicator, it is basically a copy of an Anker Duplicator, but they are no longer made. Walden used Taig lathe setups with Anker duplicators and brass cut out designs. I stumbled on one of his lathes a few years ago, did not need it then or now, but it has been a fun toy to play with.

When you fall off the deep end of making miniatures, you might want to consider taking one of his classes.

No fast and cheap. Oh well. Can't compete with the Chinese... who can sell simple little balusters this size for pennies.
I keep wondering how they do it? They surely don't turn 'em by hand.

I'm tempted to make or buy a duplicator and see if a spindle this small will hold up. I've turned a few bobbins about this size, and I can tell you it's REALLY EASY to break 'em...

[roger oldre]

Your going to believe what you want regardless of your options.

[Jim Underwood]

Your going to believe what you want regardless of your options.

HA HA HA!
You wouldn't be the first to say something like that to me. But I'm here to tell you that we learn nothing by staying comfortable. If we push the boundaries, we learn what does and does not work- and come up with solutions. There's quite a bit of evidence of that right here on this forum.
I've been told I shouldn't do things the way I did them, but the results spoke for themselves.

[Scott Hackler]

You could have a shaper blade ground to the profile you need and tack it onto some bar stock for a shaper technique. Be even faster with that shaper blade mounted in a cross vise on the lathe, where you just have to advance the blade into the blank. Would be super quick to.

[roger oldre]

Scott that is the way they used to turn bowling pins : full profile knives counter rotating to the workpeice. the problem is longitudinal grain. When the cutter gets a bite between the winter growth and blows it apart it could be pretty spectacular! not only the wood chunks flying every where but the knives would come loose on occasion and go through the guard shield. there would be remnants of the like stuck in the ceiling of the turning area! Lots of wasted material and high attrition. A shaped scraper would leave a rough finish that would require lots of sanding and being so thin I doubt they would even be round once you got them smooth, not to mention the chipped corners at the transition from round to square. For these small pieces a curtain knife lathe would work well but the tooling for such a short run would be expensive.

Jim my comment was about "No fast and cheap". It has been my life to make not only fast and cheap possible but include quality as well in many areas not just turning. Often the case is that people resign to the beleife that there cant be a better way. For my fathers entire 60+ years as a wood turner he ran modified metal lathes as duplicating wood lathes. It would be quite easy to build a duplicator that would fit you lathe for the run of your parts inexpensively. many of the add on duplicators and especially the ones where a movable pedestal with a cutting tool is pushed around provide a rough finish cut. This is because if the tool is ground with proper reliefe to allow a good cut the tool self feeds. Done properly you shouldn't loose very many from breaking and sanding can be held to a minimum. Your greatest time loss will be chucking and unchucking parts. The lever actin tailstock solves that though.

[Geoff Crimmins]

Have you checked to to see if there are any businesses that offer a this service for dollhouse builders? If there is, it might be that they could do faster and cheaper than you can. I see from your message that you have a Carvewright. I also see that Carvewright sells a rotary attachment that looks like it would probably work for what you want to make. That sounds like it would be a fairly quick and easy way to produce identical pieces of high quality. Or is there a suitable material for having them 3D printed? It's also possible that they could be made using a small ornamental mill, like the one from Legacy, or the Craftsman Router Crafter. I vaguely recall seeing a similar machine made for decorating pen blanks that might be the right size for your pieces. With the right cutter, maybe they could be made on a CNC metal lathe. Of course you could turn them by hand on your wood lathe, but I expect that would take too long to be cost effective. Although you might really get the hang of it after the first 100 and be able to turn the rest fairly quickly. I'm just throwing out ideas in the hopes that one of them is actually a good one.

--Geoff

[Jamie Buxton]

How 'bout using a duplicator on your lathe, but with a rotary tool instead of a the usual turning chisel? At your size, the rotary tool could be a Dremel. It'd be like a CNC lathe, but without the computer. The point about the rotary cutting tool is that it bites off a smaller chunk of wood than a turning chisel, and is less likely to break the baluster.

And maybe you don't need a formal duplicator, just a template for your Dremel to follow.

[Frederick Skelly]

Have you checked to to see if there are any businesses that offer a this service for dollhouse builders? If there is, it might be that they could do faster and cheaper than you can. I see from your message that you have a Carvewright. I also see that Carvewright sells a rotary attachment that looks like it would probably work for what you want to make. That sounds like it would be a fairly quick and easy way to produce identical pieces of high quality. Or is there a suitable material for having them 3D printed? It's also possible that they could be made using a small ornamental mill, like the one from Legacy, or the Craftsman Router Crafter. I vaguely recall seeing a similar machine made for decorating pen blanks that might be the right size for your pieces. With the right cutter, maybe they could be made on a CNC metal lathe. Of course you could turn them by hand on your wood lathe, but I expect that would take too long to be cost effective. Although you might really get the hang of it after the first 100 and be able to turn the rest fairly quickly. I'm just throwing out ideas in the hopes that one of them is actually a good one.

--Geoff

I had some similar thoughts - this seems like a job for your carvewright.