Question:

[sol92258]

This probably isn't the correct section, but it's the only one that made sense for this question:

At my place of employment (a high school), the wood shop teacher recently bought a Carvewright machine. That thing is wicked cool, if you haven't heard of it, take a moment and Google it, I'll wait.....

....

okay, that's long enough

anyway, I'm wondering if there's any way to incorporate this machine in with woodturning?
Maybe putting a design into a blank before it's turned or something?
probably couldn't do for a pen, but for something larger perhaps?
I'm not very imaginative, so I can't think of any real way it could be used. You'd probably have to know the exact dimension of the piece you intend to make so you could account for curvature, but there's a brainstorm idea for you.

 

[DennisM]

Can it carve out a 3d item really small? If so, have it carve out some fish, a fishing pole, knife, or some other little thing like that and cast that carving into some clear acrylic.

 

[jleiwig]

You would have to add a rotary 4th axis to turn a finished item. Could be done, might be cost prohibitive though.

 

[sol92258]

I may have just thought of the solution!

Design, say, a brush handle, in halves. Have the machine cut out the two halves, then glue them together, sand, and finish.

Not really a 4-D lathe solution, but close :biggrin:

 

[wood-of-1kind]

Not an effective tool for doing pens/designs but a very affordable machine to do a lot of other 'things' outside the pen world. I was thinking of buying one but, it's not the most rugged made (CNC like) and requires storage at room temperature. It does NOT like the 'cold' shop that would be facing me (Canada).