Cutter Vision by JT Turning

[Hilel Salomon]

One man's fruit is another man's poison. I have friends who are master craftsmen/artists who would never use a jointer or a planer and yet achieve fantastic results. I admire them and use my jointer, planer and sander. I use a chainsaw and bandsaw regularly as well. As for turning, I hate everything about turning except the turning, and would welcome with enthusiasm any machine, robot or friend who would do all my sharpening, sanding and cleanup for me. I have good roughing tools, but would be more than happy to work with perfectly rounded blanks ready to be used with a screw chuck or faceplate. What I love is to see the shavings fly off the lathe, which-if I'm not mistaken-is a machine with a motor. Now I need to get in touch with some friends, but the smokestack isn't quite ready.

[John Sincerbeaux]

I got into woodturning about two years ago because I wanted to turn large hollow forms. I was taught to hollow by hand. But I just felt there was a better way. My hollowing tools have been evolving ever since. I have a "Stabilizer" and a "Visualizer" as well as a bunch of custom tooling modeled after other vendors. The Visualizer is the most valuable tool for my hollowing efficiency. My limited experience using a laser was less than impressive. In fact, the only vessel I have ever failed was while using a laser.

[robert baccus]

If you want to get away from boring, long, and mundane deep hollowing get away from scraping cutters that tend to cut at right angles to the side of a vase. No lasers or cameras needed here here. Look for technology in cutters and not electronics and gizzmoes.