CNC spindle turning, Advice please.

joel4mo · 7 Nov 2022

Hello all,

Looking to make 6no 900mm long newel posts to suit a very specific design. Feel its beyond my capabilities, mainly as they could be anything up to 300mm thick at some points.

With that in mind I am thinking CNC is my best way forward. I have a CNC, and know many others that do but know no one with a CNC lathe, or even if they're capable of something so deep.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks

Inspector · 7 Nov 2022

If you are only going to do 6 then a copy lathe attachment for a regular wood lathe might be the way to go. Finding one that can turn that diameter might be a little harder. What is the minimum diameter you envision? Care to post a drawing of what you are making? Farming the work out to a person/company with a copy lathe could be cheaper.

Pete

Richard_C · 7 Nov 2022

I went to a woodturning demo by Les Thorne. He is a production turner, one of the few full time ones. In his 'chat' he mentioned that he did such things to order for restorations etc. Might be worth a call.

If you want to do it yourself, as Pete says a copying attachment might be the answer, loads of ideas on you tube etc, some call them copy attachments, some call them duplicators. Assumes you have a lathe with 300 mm capacity, if you don't have the length I guess you could do them in 2 parts with round mortice and tennon connections.

Robbo3 · 7 Nov 2022

You could also try Richard Findley. He hand turns spindles by the hundred.
- Home - The Turner's Workshop

niall Y · 7 Nov 2022

I have been putting together a CNC lathe, as a project , over the last several years. In fact, it is an attachment to fit on my Union Jubilee lathe. I have not got around to fettling it, and trying it out in earnest. This I am hoping to do in the warmer months of next year ( I don't want to have the computer et al in a damp workshop ) This, however, only has a clearance over the bed of 125mm.

I used to deal with a firm called ALLENS up near Newark, who used to specialise in turnings and other embellishments for the stripped-pine industry. I do not believe they are still trading but their selling point ,all those years ago , was that they were using CNC lathes. They only offered pine turnings, but if you sent them the timber, of your choice prepped to their required size, they would turn it for you.

I'm sure that there are other firms offering a similar service. After all, if you supply a Cad drawing they can easily translate it to produce a finished turning. Probably just a matter of phoning around to track someone down. All those years ago, it made much more economic sense to have the table legs I needed turned on a CNC lathe, than it was for me to turn them myself