Lathe Dancers - Do they Work?

[charlese]

It has been since February and July of 2008 since we talked about lathe dancers. I had it my mind they would serve as a poor man's lathe duplicator. Do a forum search for Lathe Dancers and you will see the two posts from back then (2008).

Well - I finally got a round TUIT and an hour or so per day for the last few weeks did some construction and tried them out.

Didn't have any turning project in mind - just wanted to see if the dancers worked. So I drew out a template of what could be a pair of leg stretchers for a chair or bench. The Idea of dancers was an old method of duplicating spindles way back when turners didn't have better automation. Would this work on a Shopsmith lathe?? We will see!

Here's some photos - It will take several posts to cover the story -

THE DANCER SUPPORTS

8910

THE SUPPORT WITH HOLDERS (used scrap material

8912

SHOWING ATTACHMENT BLOCKS FOR SHOPSMITH these are from ripped 2X6s

8913

DANCER BLOCKS Hard maple 1"x1/2"x1/4" - 1/8" holes and 1/4" single hole - screw hole tapped, then "crazy glued" then re-tapped

8914

SINGLE BLOCK WITH DANCER dancer is a bamboo skewer - plastic Pick-Up-Sticks would also work

8915

TO BE CONTINUED ---

[charlese]

MOUNTS SET UP ON LATHE (photo taken after turning so shows all the chips)

8916

TEMPLATE MOUNTED ON STORY BOARD WITH DANCERS SET TO SIZE

8917

NEXT THREE PICS SHOWING DANCERS IN USE (the lathe was turning when these pics were snapped When diameter is reached, the dancer quits dancing and bows deeply. This is why some of the dancers seem upside down

8918

CLOSEUP OF THE THREE LEFT DANCERS
8919

8920

TO BE CONTINUED ----

[charlese]

The rest of the picture story - - -

THE DANCER JIG WORKED!!! NOW????? WHERE DO I NEED SPINDLES?

8921

--END-- Whoops! forgot some stuff - see post #13--

[nuhobby]

Chuck, that is really cool!

[easterngray]

Fantastic! Nicely done - those are really terriffic

[beeg]

GREAT presentation there Chuck.

[a1gutterman]

Very nice work you did Chuck! You are a true craftsman.

[dewey2me1mothyme]

This is a very interesting thread, and Kudos on a job well done. I need to come back and read it all again when my one active brain cell is more alert, I'm sure I missed some important stuff. Alot to grasp in here.