Not everything fits in the lathe, so cant always be crowned that way. Problem I have is the cost of some of these tools. Brownells gets $174 for a single caliber cutter, handle, and guide. If you price it out thats $75 for the handle, seems a bit steep. And of course it has to be a special set up where only their handle will work. And $25ea seems a bit much for their guides. The PTG cutter uses a standard tap handle, but seems to be out of stock everywhere. I considered buying Brownells 11degree cutter and making my own guides and handle.
Is there some non gun tool out there that will do the same job? Just like 'marine' doubles the price of a part, 'gun' seems to do the same thing.