doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Restocking Question (duplicator)

I have always wanted to do a project gun that needs restocking. I came across a duplicator called a Radarcarve. Does anyone have one? Are they any good?,and would you recommend one.Here is their link http://www.radarcarve.net/?p=modelone
Thanks

I have too. I looked at this same model awhile back. I decided that I can pay 200.00 to 350.00 for a duplicated stock from my original and then have the pleasure and or satisfaction of doing the inletting and final sanding/shaping/finishing myself.

Thus I play a part in the restoration of the gun and don't have a lot of money tied up in it. I also don't get to carve up a bunch of practice wood making mistakes

There are a few threads present that discuss companies that offer duplication service.

AWOLF,
Wenig can supply any grade wood you can imagine and duplicate your stock or one of their patterns.

The difference with them them profiling their wood is, if a fault is uncovered during profiling, it's their problem, not yours. When you have $3000 wood, that's a big advantage. You get what you pay for.

Regards, Ron

AWOL --- Good advice was given you. Have your blank duplicated after you have altered origional stock to fit your personal configuration. You come out way ahead of the game by buying your blank directly from the wood purveyor.

RJM --- Fred told me he charged more to dup. a client blank in case some of the figure popped out during the inleting cuts. I think Wenig's is the only co. doing this. The people I use don't add on this charge so is less expensive to buy your own blank. I have never heard of any well known wood purveyors who wouldn't refund or replace a blank with internal damage. FWIW, Ken

WHO, would you guys recommend to send a nice piece of wood for a Baker sidelock Buttstock to to be duplicated? With as little remaining inletting as possible.

Back to the original question, anybody know anything about the Radarcurve duplicator?

The radar people are new to me but Wenig is not.

I had them do a stock and forend and they will not do another for me. I think what they did for me was done very late on a Friday afternoon by a new hire.

JMO of course but I have a number of projects that are still looking for a duplicator that does work worth the price.

WtS

Sooner or later, someone's going to come up with a duplicator machine that is reasonably accurate and doesn't weigh two tons and cost $20k. Is the Radar the one?

Unless you are going to turn several stocks, even better if you turn the same one multiple times, it is easier and cheaper to send it out. That machine has the minor problem of vibration to overcome. The less rigid the machine the more slop in the copy. That set up is OK for a 90% finished job. Not accurate enough for 95% stocks. And a 90% job leaves a lot of wood to remove.

I invested three plus grand in a duplicator and it sits unused. The learning curve for through bolt guns is not to bad but it is longer for box locks and it gets real long for sidelocks.

Set up is key and going slow, with sharp cutters is vital. I have a Baker to do of my own but have been putting it off for six months. Decent pattern is the first thing to make and then you have to get it in the machine in as solid a positions as you can get. Glue up both ends to wood blocks and then screw these into the machine fixtures. Slop and vibration are killers for accurate duplication. Plus it takes up a heck of a lot of room in the shop. My table is about three feet by five feet and it needs two feet clear around all sides to use. Lot of floor space in a shop. I will sell it in a year or two and go back to sending them out. I still have hopes of using it but know that the longer it sits unused the more it needs to go.

Three grand would copy a lot of stocks if I sent them out.

Learning to use the duplicator is a time consuming process. I learned to use Cuttermaster, Northstar, and Dakota machines in my youth. Each is different and has quirks that must be mastered in order to do good work. The men (sorry no women applied) of Reinhart Fajen spent one year just learning how to use the machine and running simple...really simple...patterns for the industry. The best people had been on the machines for over 10 years. All these craftsmen did was carve gunstocks!!!

If you need something done well....find someone that has been doing it for a long time. Don't try to do it yourself...no matter how talented you are with your hands. This is of course my own opinion and others may thnk otherwise. Yes, I use others to carve MY patterns for me.

The Radar machine is not known specifically to me. However...the principle function and physical properties of all machines that copy gunstocks are similar, be they two axis or three axis machines. Having a cutter grab a piece of wood and remove the control from your hands is a very humbling experience....not to mention expensive.