Home Duplicator Question

[fishing bum wannabe]

I have a duplicator with the sled made of maple. In order to get a screw and thread in the maple to make the follower adjustable you can add threaded inserts or you can just thread the wood. On mine I drilled a pilot, screwed in a #12 screw, used it as a tap, then ground off the pointed tip of the screw and it became my set screw. I use an aluminum follower and the screw digs in a little, locking everything in place. I've had zero issues with it. You can see the screw head in the photo on the left. I plan to change out the aluminum for something plastic that will slide smoother against the template.

As far as getting the cutter height exact, you can do it with shims. The groove is pretty tight side to side on my sled but about 1/8" too deep for the tool holder. I have a small block of maple in the groove as well as a couple of shims to tweak it to the correct height. The shims are made out of some stainless I had leftover from making lips. Everything locks down tight and works great. You can see the end of the wooden shim sticking out of the groove at the back of the sled in the photo on the right. The 4 #12 screws hold everything firmly in place.