[Mojo7]

I built a duplicator similar to the one the that I saw on this forum. I have a few questions on cutters and using it properly. First off I have limited lathe experience I've turned 25-30 plugs by hand mostly pencils and have done ok with it.

I built the duplicator with the cutting edge slightly below center. One of my machinist buddies made me a cutting tool out of 3/8" high speed tooling stock with a rounded edge and a pointed edge both with positive cutting edges (which he said was better for cutting wood???) he asked what type of edge I wanted positive, neutral, or negative? Which of these edges would be better for cutting wood? Is the pointed or the rounded edge better for turning plugs? From the ones I've seen in picture on this sight most guys seem to be using pointed cutters.

I tried the duplicator and it seemed to leave a very rough finish alot rougher than I've been getting with the hand chisels and the cutters didn't seem to cut as well which I'm sure is due to operator era. Right know my lathe is turning at 1175 rpm. The other speed options are 767, 1950, & 2885. Should I be turning at a higher rpm?

I tried to post pictures but I think my pic files are to large and I can't figure out how to re size them

Thanks, Mark