Heres a peek at one we've been working on.
This prototype was made simply for proof of concept, it has many flaws & it's quite dangerous, please dont attempt.
Once we're happy with the design, we'll make it available here.
Our prerequisites were that the materials be readily available, affordable & be able to build & use in a small shop.
Feedback welcomed.
Ca'mon hurry up already,I have to have one of these!
A Mac,
Let us know how it turns out for you.
We played around with the commercial version at Nathan's during the Clinton Meet.
Unless your intention is to carve 2 halves & join them together, you're gonna need a way to index the rotation of the master & blank.
I've followed the copycarver site for many years now, it's a great setup for larger baits, gunstocks, decoys etc, but not sure if they have addressed the 360 indexing issue or not.
Quote:
Originally Posted by carpholeo
Ca'mon hurry up already,I have to have one of these!
I just got my router bits in the mail. However, I'm quite busy trying to get caught up on some orders with my smaller cranks and haven't got around to messing with the copy carver much. It is together and it looks like it will work. As far as 360 there is a method in the plans but Ed Waliki (designer) says its much faster to do one side at a time and focus on fine detail with a dremel. I'm not quite sure how the 360 thing would work according to the plans. However, the entire machine didn't really make sense until I was actually building it. Design is quite genius.
Red, that is truly impressive and that type of thing is the reason I come to this website. It is just amazing to see what different minds devise and how guys modify the works and tricks of others to make them even better.
That thing is fascinating. I'm sure you thought of this already, but I'll bet you could also apply a sander to the same task. Off the top of my head, I could imagine a sander of the type where a long thing belt is suspended between two driving rollers. That would allow the blank to move the belt somewhat so as to not remove too much material too fast.
Heres a peek at one we've been working on.
This prototype was made simply for proof of concept, it has many flaws & it's quite dangerous, please dont attempt.
Once we're happy with the design, we'll make it available here.
Our prerequisites were that the materials be readily available, affordable & be able to build & use in a small shop.
Feedback welcomed.
i've been cramped w/ tryin to graduate from purdue lately (and studyin for GRE) so haven't done much w/ the copy carver. I will say this, IT WORKS! The bluegill as my avatar is what I've been making w/ it. The avatar isn't a copycarver fish; however, it's identical to ones I have made. This is not an easy machine to build though! Unless you have access to EXTREMELY precise tools this machine will not perform perfectly. The hardest thing I have encountered is making my blank (raw form of the bluegill bait) perfectly centered and alligned w/ raw piece of wood. The way it works is that you "carve" your lure using the machine and then flip the blank and the peice of wood over in order to cut the other side. The problem you will find is that if you have any wood block mounting errors the sides of the bait will not be symetrical. The copy carver does NOT cut a clean smooth surface, rough sanding is required. What the copy carver is good for is duplicating your bait. After sanding, your bait is identical to the one you copied. My gill takes about 4 hours to cut/carve/ sand/ by hand. With the copycarver, it takes about 30min to cut/carve and about 10min to sand smooth.
Fun toy though, I have a feeling it has better places elsewhere than fishing lures. Still dangerous too! The router I had mounted first shot a blue flame 2ft into the air and was too hot to touch for over an hour!
I too am working on a duplicator machine, however, it is still on the drawing board. Manufacture soon.
As I see it, making the blank by hand takes about 20 mins. I don't know what you are doing for four hours, must be drinking a lot of coffee. To make a dup m/c worth while, it should cut a blank in about 1 minute. Therefore, cutting the stock and final shaping should bring the final timing up to about 12 pieces per hour.
Please step on my neck if you think these times are unreasonable. Save me building the damn thing. I have invested so much thinking time into this project.
