stevethewoodturner does some great skew chisel work. He posts on Youtube and Instagram daily. I asked him why he's not a member of the AAW and he replied it is because he's in the UK. That is not a good excuse though.
Should have told him there's many members here from U.K, Ireland and many other countries. Might have gotten some interest from him?stevethewoodturner does some great skew chisel work. He posts on Youtube and Instagram daily. I asked him why he's not a member of the AAW and he replied it is because he's in the UK. That is not a good excuse though.
A few times I've asked talented individuals who were striving to make a living turning why they were not members of the AAW. Their answers were mostly related to the the AAW not being receptive to new methods or concepts. I certainly find that to be true, almost anything beyond traditional woodturning methods are not well received, at least on this forum.I asked him why he's not a member of the AAW and he replied it is because he's in the UK. That is not a good excuse though.
Hmm, I can't say that I've seen any evidence that the AAW is "not receptive to new methods or concepts". An organization like this does not show continual growth and expansion without an open mind. Not that long ago, we never saw painted work here, or dyed wood, or resin incorporation, or pyrography to name just some. When you stop to think about the fact that everybody here is working on the same type of machine that is built to accomplish a similar goal, I am amazed at how versatile our membership is.A few times I've asked talented individuals who were striving to make a living turning why they were not members of the AAW. Their answers were mostly related to the the AAW not being receptive to new methods or concepts. I certainly find that to be true, almost anything beyond traditional woodturning methods are not well received, at least on this forum.
To make good money at turning (not resorting to teaching or selling tools) you have to sometimes bite the bullet and adapt modern methods. Being a traditional turning purist is almost a guaranteed road to poverty.
A few times I've asked talented individuals who were striving to make a living turning why they were not members of the AAW. Their answers were mostly related to the the AAW not being receptive to new methods or concepts. I certainly find that to be true, almost anything beyond traditional woodturning methods are not well received, at least on this forum.
To make good money at turning (not resorting to teaching or selling tools) you have to sometimes bite the bullet and adapt modern methods. Being a traditional turning purist is almost a guaranteed road to poverty.
I can't say that I've seen any evidence that the AAW is "not receptive to new methods or concepts".
How about my posting on making oval bowls on a CNC from May, 2022? There was quite a bit of pushback on the topic. So much that the moderators moved the thread to the Off Topic sub forum. I also experienced pretty much the same when attending the years ago Seattle area OT symposium showing CNC'd work in the instant gallery.
The AAW can be confusing. The Journal had at least one cover story on a CNC "turned" object plus several articles. In all those articles there was no mention of the featured works having been done on a CNC. Huh? The works of Mark Lindquist and Giles Gilson being non-traditional woodturning at first were not readily accepted, yet they both eventually were given the highest honors by the AAW.
CNC'ing may be work of certainty rather than risk. I look at the incredibly high cost of exotic woods these days and it takes deep pockets for risk.
If this AAW forum is still around 10 years from now I expect CNC will be very acceptable and hopefully more emphasis will be on design than on hand turning techniques.
Don't hold your breath Doug.
CNC is quite the opposite, in that, in Doug's case, a computer controlled spinning cutter is pre-programmed to shape a stationary piece of wood. This entirely eliminates the human element to the process of actually shaping the wood.....and, this is a very significant difference which separates it from "woodturning" in a traditional sense.
Hmm, what exactly is woodturning?This is a woodturning forum. Making facsimiles of turned bowls with a CNC machine might open up new artistic possibilities, and it may be financially prudent, but it's not woodturning.
Hmm, what exactly is woodturning?
Here's a picture of a "real" woodturner.
View attachment 59649
She must have her VFD in a remote location. Hard to see how she mounts her laser guided hollowing mechanism. Good assortment of tools at the ready, maybe off to her right is her sharpening station with several CBN wheels on her variable speed grinder. She may be watching her favorite turning videos online as she works.
Or, is it possible turning has evolved in ways nobody could have ever imagined from the days of this picture? How might it evolve in the near future? Do you suppose kids who are learning CNC in the 4th grade through "coding" and 3D printing might be advocates of CNC woodturning in a few years?
Asher, you need to get out more. Those pipes you show are beautiful, but to think those couldn't be done on a CNC machine is wrong. They're almost trivial. The needed skill of the CNC'er would be in the pipe design and determining how to orient the wood to emphasize the grain and then programming the CNC. I would rank the design part as the most difficult.I'll believe that copy machines and CNC routing has truly, fully replaced handcrafted artistry when I see a machine that can create pipes like these:
Asher, you need to get out more. Those pipes you show are beautiful, but to think those couldn't be done on a CNC machine is wrong. They're almost trivial. The needed skill of the CNC'er would be in the pipe design and determining how to orient the wood to emphasize the grain and then programming the CNC. I would rank the design part as the most difficult.
I wonder if there was the same resistance to change when lasers and other “changes” were introduced to woodturning. I find Odie’s comments very reasoned and apt—is CBC work woodturning or a subset of woodworking? Probably the latter. Regardless, I think it’s worth a forum here and I find it fascinating. I’m glad Doug persists in educating us.Sure, why not!
Tom, sometimes I forget to mention my use of CNC is not to eliminate traditional turning. More to show the versatility of CNC like this variable radius, concave tapered, twisted fluting that nobody can or is doing with any of the attachments like Flute Master and various others. The cutter is the same as supplied with threading jigs like the Baxter. Back in the day these type furniture parts were made on huge, mechanical copy lathes originally developed to mass produce rifle stocks during war times going back to the Civil War. The copy lathes required a hand carved master pattern to trace from. This could be done on an under $1500 CNC router from Woodcraft with a simple home built indexer.No need to worry about CNC replacing traditional turning,