Didn't do any turning today but I tackled a project I've been contemplating for a good while. Many who turn deeper vessels use a laser setup to help them determine how deep the cutter is cutting. It also helps determine wall thickness and total depth. That is the method I've used for a few years. I've been wanting to upgrade to a camera setup and decided today to "git-er-done". I had pretty much everything on hand and it went fairly quickly. I haven't had a chance to test it out yet but I believe it will be a much better setup.

 

 

 

It's kind of hard to get your head around exactly how it works until a person sees it in action, or at least it was for me. It's an amazing idea really, don't know who thought of it first but it's a real game changer.

It offers a few advantages over a laser setup. With a laser, every time the cutter is adjusted, the laser must also be adjusted and it's guess work sometimes to get it just right. Also, due to vibration the laser can move off location and there is no good way to tell without pulling the cutter out of the piece and checking, the alternative is possibly cutting too deep or going through the side. Very time consuming.

With a camera, when the cutter is moved it's a simple matter of erasing and redrawing the position on the screen with a dry erase marker. Also, it's very obvious if the camera vibrates off location. Hoping to test it out tomorrow.

Edited May 12, 20215 yr by Steve Krumanaker

Took a minute to figure out how the cutter/marker stayed in sync. That is definitely better than the laser!  
 

Do you have a GoPro camera?

2 minutes ago, lew said:

Took a minute to figure out how the cutter/marker stayed in sync. That is definitely better than the laser!  
 

Do you have a GoPro camera?

 

Yea, the camera just replaces the laser, still, it doesn't seem like it should be possible the first few times a person watches. I have a cheap knockoff of a gopro.

I think Trent Bosch had the first commercial system, not sure that was the first system

I have seen a few videos of people doing that. It looks much easier than the laser.