Hi folks! I’m Bob Taylor. I retired about 8 years ago after a 35 year career in electrical engineering, designing CPU cores for IBM and then Qualcomm. My wife Marie and I live in Raleigh, NC. We have 6 grown kids, 2 grandkids, a workshop and a backyard goat and chicken farm to keep us busy. In the workshop we have traditional woodworking tools as well as a ShopBot CNC (the factory is just a few miles from us in Durham), a laser, vinyl cutter and heat press. We make all kinds of stuff to sell at craft fairs as a retirement hobby business.
About 3 years ago I added a Rikon 70-150vsr lathe to the mix. I’d never turned before, and I’ve still got a lot to learn, but I’m having loads of fun. I joined the local AAW chapter, the Woodturners Guild of NC. The demos are amazing and everyone is incredibly kind and helpful. Wood turners are a good bunch!
I like using the CNC to help with tasks that I’m not comfortable yet doing on the lathe. The first time I made a live edge bowl from an irregular chunk of wood, I watched club demos and YouTube videos about how to prepare the blank. I just couldn’t imagine doing it the usual way on my little 10” bandsaw and midi lathe. But I was able to easily surface and round off the blank on the CNC, and even wrote a custom toolpath to cut a dovetail recess. I put it on the lathe and it spun nice and true, hooray!
That got me thinking about other ways to use the CNC to help with my turning journey. I’ve used it to create parts for segmented turning, pockets for epoxy inlays, screw threads for box lids, and my own custom indexing system for basket illusions. Lately I’ve been making segmented pieces with really cool curved compound miter joints. I can’t imagine any way to do these joints without a CNC, and I think they are really unique and beautiful.
I’m really glad I got into turning. It’s fun, the community is amazing, and beautiful results are possible even for a novice like me. I can’t wait to attend the 2026 AAW symposium, especially since it’s right here in Raleigh. Maybe I’ll even get to meet some of y’all!
About 3 years ago I added a Rikon 70-150vsr lathe to the mix. I’d never turned before, and I’ve still got a lot to learn, but I’m having loads of fun. I joined the local AAW chapter, the Woodturners Guild of NC. The demos are amazing and everyone is incredibly kind and helpful. Wood turners are a good bunch!
I like using the CNC to help with tasks that I’m not comfortable yet doing on the lathe. The first time I made a live edge bowl from an irregular chunk of wood, I watched club demos and YouTube videos about how to prepare the blank. I just couldn’t imagine doing it the usual way on my little 10” bandsaw and midi lathe. But I was able to easily surface and round off the blank on the CNC, and even wrote a custom toolpath to cut a dovetail recess. I put it on the lathe and it spun nice and true, hooray!
That got me thinking about other ways to use the CNC to help with my turning journey. I’ve used it to create parts for segmented turning, pockets for epoxy inlays, screw threads for box lids, and my own custom indexing system for basket illusions. Lately I’ve been making segmented pieces with really cool curved compound miter joints. I can’t imagine any way to do these joints without a CNC, and I think they are really unique and beautiful.
I’m really glad I got into turning. It’s fun, the community is amazing, and beautiful results are possible even for a novice like me. I can’t wait to attend the 2026 AAW symposium, especially since it’s right here in Raleigh. Maybe I’ll even get to meet some of y’all!
