Grr... PSI website

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NotURMailman

NotURMailman

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Oct 15, 2012
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Location
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Ok, just wanted to vent for a minute.

I've been trying for 3 hours to go to the PSI website to look at their duplicator. (My nephew wants me to make him a chess set.)

There is a message that they are making changes to the site and to come back in an hour. Why put up a message stating a specific time window if you're not sure the work will be done in that time frame.

I mean, they could have just said that they would be done soon or even just as soon as possible. So, why did they specifically state one hour?

I wish I knew aonther place to get a duplicator and chess piece templates at as low of a price.

Ok... rant over.
 
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Don't take this the wrong way, but wouldn't the set be more of a keepsake if it was totally hand done? Seems like using a duplicator, while it will ensure the pieces are similar or near exact, is not the same as being hand made..... jyo-wwyp. (just my opinion - worth what you paid)

I have plans -- maybe number 69 on my list of to-do turnings list -- to make a chess set, but also plan to make each piece by hand and try (big plans) to make each piece by hand. Not going to be easy to duplicate 16 pawns...
 
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I actually tried to do it completely by hand. The pieces were too far varied for my tastes. I just want to use the duplicator to cut the rough shapes so that the matching pieces look matching. I will finish shaping by hand, sand by hand, and finish by hand.

And yes, I realize I may very well be spending almost $150 on tools to make a gift and the tools may never get used again. I'm OK with that. It's my 13 year old nephew and he gets very excited over stuff like this, worth it to me!

But, I just cant seem to get a full set of pawns roughed out and have them look like they match.
 
Yes,
I purchased one back about 4 years ago. IMHO, not worth it. I used it several times using various barrel style templates. I had all of the templates. I found that I could do much better free handing.
But, thats just me.
Russ

NotURMailman said:
Well, it's back up now. But, I'm still undecided, Anybody here ever use one of the PSI duplicators to make a chess set?
Click to expand...
 
monark88 said:
Yes,
I purchased one back about 4 years ago. IMHO, not worth it. I used it several times using various barrel style templates. I had all of the templates. I found that I could do much better free handing.
But, thats just me.
Russ
Click to expand...

So, you're saying you did use it to do chess pieces? Did it atleast do what it was supposed to do (make the pieces the same general shape) without adding a lot of hassle.

I have wasted quite a bit of maple and oak trying to do it by hand. Either the contours don't match, or I end up cutting a convex cut too deeply. I could get two to three to be acceptable. But, I actually made one whole set of pawns and when I stood them all up together i was not happy at all. They became scrap and I started to consider a duplicator.

I'm not expecting a whole lot out of it, just don't want to buy something that won't do what I'm looking for it to do.

Thank you for the input.
 
If you use a storyboard you can get pieces that look very similar to one another. I do this to make many things and it works very well. The measurements are all the same and you can use the profile to ensure that the pieces are similar.
I make mine from hard board since it wears well. I have many templates that I use over and over.
 
nava1uni said:
If you use a storyboard you can get pieces that look very similar to one another. I do this to make many things and it works very well. The measurements are all the same and you can use the profile to ensure that the pieces are similar.
I make mine from hard board since it wears well. I have many templates that I use over and over.
Click to expand...

That would make an awesome tutorial! I was taught to use a shadowing method and stop-n-go.
 
I would really love to see both methods. Could you give me some google words to look for them? I'm "no" good at that. Thank you for your help.
 
Here is an example of storyboards. While this one was left whole you can also cut the pattern out for alignment.

http://www.turnedtreasures.com/pdf_pages/gavel_turning_pdf.pdf

Another trick (probably won't work as good on smaller stuff); we use to draw our "storyboard" on standard white paper. Then photo copy it (1 per unit to make), then after rough rounding, glue it to the rounded stock with wood glue. Once it dried we could cut our guide lines and use the premade storyboard to finish.

For shadowing... Our template was cutout and placed on the backside of the lathe (takes practice to get it lined up with your eye) and you simple turn while watching the backside of the blank (aligned with the template). It's a pain in the keaster to get set up, however once you do a couple hundred of something, it becomes pretty easy and save a load of time from having to stop/start every couple seconds to line up your template.

Final thought, you don't want them all to be identical; it would look machine duplicated if it were. A little variation gives each piece some identity.
 
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