dupilcator ?

You may get a lot of opinions here, but this one is just mine.

Buy 'em.

By the time you find all the wood you need, and it is straight, clear, and dried enough to keep from warping after you turn it, you will have paid the cost of the spindles. Properly dried wood is so important in this case it is as important as the turning. You cannot afford to have your masterpiece staircase look ugly because of an errant baluster that decided to do a fan dance under the rail. You can spot those guys a mile away.

Then there's the time. And of course, how well you turn, and how concerned you are that ALL of them look exactly the same. If it was 10 or fifteen, I would think it would be worth it to turn yourself. But not that many.

A quick net search showed several vendors that had them for sale in all types of hardwoods.

Robert

Depends on how ambitious and gung-ho you are about spindle turning, but I'd buy them. I could easily see turning stair spindles getting really old after ten or fifteen of them, and then letting them sit in a corner of the shop to gather dust.

As far as duplicators go, I recently ran across a really interesting design that I've been considering knocking together for myself.

There are a couple of different versions of this floating around, mostly for making fishing lures, but a guy could probably scale up pretty easily by bolting a piece of 3/4" plywood to the ways for the duplicator to ride on, and use a strip of plexiglass with the pattern cut in it as a guide. Don't know how well it works, but the principle seems simple and intuitive enough, and it's certainly less expensive than buying one from a manufacturer, though the setup would take a little longer.

If you go this route, and need cutters for it, check here:

I think I'd probably go for drill rod, and grind a cutter profile into it for ease of re-sharpening, but it seems a lot of guys like using round inserts.

As a really interesting thought, a guy could almost use this style duplicator for making sets of bowls... turn the outsides of every piece as shown in the pictures, then clamp a different pattern for the inside of the bowls on the bed and do those as well. I don't know if any of the commerical ones do that, but I figure this one would.

I've had a duplicator for four years now, have yet to use it. It came with my first lathe. For what it's worth, I think I'd buy them, I'm too picky about my turnings, I'd hate the first one by the time I got to the middle,

Hi Terry, I agree with Robert 100%. Re part of your question, the method for duplicating spindles is usually called "semaphores". Sears used to sell a set. They are easy to make, but seldom used. Basically a rod parallel to and behind the spindle with a series of loose hanging sheet metal or wire arms. The spacing and length can be adjusted to ride on the spindle and fall thru at different points along the spindle and depths of cut.

For a few bannisters in a short bent I once deliberately turned each spindle in a different form. Whimsical maybe, but I didn't fool my woodturning friends re my duplicating inabilities. :)

Migosh! 92 oak balusters, home made or store bought will be expensive. Have you considered a companionway or a ladder? Just kidding. :)

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

check on price and then email me pics and dimensions. Probably beat the price once my CNC machine is operational.