Cecil is top notch. Most of the wood dealers I use are. This blank I bought off the internet five years ago and I have no chance. Oh well it was not that much money and sometimes you win and sometimes you loose.
I have a Gemini machine that I have modified into a five axis machine. About the only thing left from the Gemini is part of the tracing arm, the motor mount, the head and tail stocks, much altered, and a ton of blue paint that I kept as the color scheme. About 95% of the time a three axis machine is how I use it, but I find that there are always areas the I need to get into that the extra movements comes in handy.
My side rails are T-rails off a CNC machine, 1 1/2" dia. rails that are six feet long. The table top a deck of 2X2's two layers deep, running in two directions that were glued and screwed down, covered with 3" of plywood, on legs that could hold up a small elephant. It, the bench, weighs about 500-550 pounds. Built heavy to help soak up vibration.
The real problem is making a jig to hold stocks firmly but allowing easy access to all areas that need to be inlet. Best to make a pattern stock and glue attachments to it that are rigid and permanent. I can see why others hate to copy patterns when they have one of their own. I cover all my patterns with that blue painter tape to protect the finish and still worry about getting my pattern back as good as new. Much easier to just rough out a pattern, glass bed it and then glue a set of blocks directly onto the stock and then clamp it in the machine. That is why I refuse to do work for others. I screw up my wood or my blank I just gripe a while and get over it. Screw up someone elses and then you have real problems.
I looked at every machine out there. Even thought about dropping ten or twelve thousand dollars into one to get what I wanted. Decided to try this and am fairly happy so far. Sidelocks take about four to five hours to copy. "Easy" 1100 stocks take about an hour. If I get it to just a about .007-.010 over size I am happy. If you pushed it you could get it to almost a perfect fit. But I like to turn the stocks and let them rest a month before I finish the inleting. Internal stresses can show up after coping and I have seen wood move a lot in a month. Feather crotch is the worse and I just turn them well over size and wait.
