Shapeshifter... Anyone tried it?

Hi Mac, Continuing my usual position of being squarely on both sides of every issue, I have to muse about shifting shapes. Here we have a situation in which we spend hours deciding on the best lathe we can afford. A lathe that is superbly designed to make wood round. A lathe with perfectly aligned ways and heavy duty concentric bearings to assure that.

You know the drill. Once we have such a machine then we turn our efforts toward defeating its purpose. "We" includes me as I've spent many happy hours devising cheap and dirty home made devices to turn wood off center or eccentrically.

I can understand why you and I like to turn wooden objects that are not for us the boring repeated round shapes. Do you find that your customers are as thrilled as we are with shifted shapes and bizarre forms or do they prefer symmetry? Art is good, sometimes function is better. When you are up the creek, a purpose designed paddle beats an artistic design every time.

To be honest Mac, my post is pure boiler plate. Just some wadding to add to our sparse 63 posts this morning. In no way is it a criticism of your interest in the Shapeshifter. If it wasn't so expensive I'd buy one myself. In the meantime I look forward to our fellow members answering your query with more intelligent posts. :)

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

I only see two unread messages this morning. I last read the group yesterday evening.

Mac:

From looking at the photos and reading the instructions I see one issue with this idea - mounting the scroll chuck off center and thus increasing the eccentric mass (for want of a better term). The farther off the lathe's long axis the center of mass of the turning material is the more vibration / shaking you'll have.

Though I haven't weighed a SuperNova2 scroll chuck, I'm guessing it's in the 3-4 pound range.

If you've done any off center turning, even between centers and holding one center point constant on the actual center of the stock and changing the center at the other end - you know that as you turn off the stock farthest from the lathe's centerline, vibration is reduced because you're removing mass that's farthest "out of round". As the turning progresses you've got less and less wood spinning round off center and you can up the RPMs.

SO - if you start with a blank that's 2 or 3 pounds and remove 50 or 60 percent of it you've got about a pound wobbling around in just the wood. But the chuck weight stays constant [ unless of course you accidently have your cutting edge contact it ; ) ] and it's adding vibration component doesn't change for any given offset setting.

Just an obvious issue that comes to mind that you might want to consider.

charlie b

Looks like it can turn a crankshaft. Maybe CharlieB can now make a wooden engine for his creations.

Actually, small "crank shaft/cam shaft" like goblet stems might be cool.. lol

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Good point, Charlie.. I've done a few offset platters, and this sure looks like the easy way to go.. They're turned at pretty low speeds..

I'm going to wait and see if they modify if, though... To use it, I'd have to use a spindle adapter to get it from 33mm to 38mm, then a

The price seems in line but I wouldn't buy one unless it fit my lathe spindle.. It seems like eventually it will either be made for a variety of lathe spindles or will go the way of the dino's..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Hello Mac,

I just learned of the tool today when the inventor e-mailed me with his web site address. I'm a little concerned about it because the weight of the chuck rotating offcenter can be quite stressful to the lathe. On his web site, he doesn't list the spindle sizes that he is using: i.e., what size spindle will it screw onto and what is the spindle size for you to screw your chuck onto. There is no mention of these sizes or whether there is adapters available to make it fit different lathe spindles. We own four lathes: three with 1" x 8tpi spindles and one with a 1-1/4" x 8tpi. Probably our Nova G3 chuck is about the lightest that we own and it might work if one keeps the speed down. I might be interested in doing a review on it, but there are a lot of unanswered questions that one may encounter with such a device.

Fred Holder

color me in the, not ready to try it.

If I wanted eccentric, I'd spend a bit more and get the Sorby or VicMarc. If I wanted to do multi-sided "round" turning, there are better jigs then that one

"Ralph" wrote: color me in the, not ready to try it. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I do this for $0 by using a vacuum chuck.

Crankshafts are easy between centers by just changing pairs of centers. It's the damn camshaft lobes that raise hell since they're not round or even oval.

Made the mistake of stopping in to a hobby shop that specializes in RC stuff. Found THREE small battery powered electric motor and gearbox set ups, one including external battery pack, switch and cord for $4. One has a separate motor for each of the two drive shafts so they can rotate in oppositie directions -for "just" $11 - with motors. Not sure HOW I'll use them but I'm betting they'll end up as part of some Movement Turning.

I envy you. The only hobby shops around here only support the hobby of farming.

Fred.. I've been exchanging emails with the inventor (or marketer? Dan Hoffman) since seeing his ad in the AAW magazine and it seems that it's available only with 38mm on the spindle end and 1-8 on the chuck end...

I have pretty much the same setup, 2 Jet lathes with 1-8 and the Nova with

I'm also concerned with the chuck being off center, but I think that with the weight of the Nova and slow speeds, it would be ok...

As I said, I'd be much more inclined to try it if it was available in my spindle and chuck size..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Is there an adapter for the Shapeshifter to be used on a Vertilathe? If so, be sure to wear your dust snorkeI. I forget its name. Oh, and be sure to _buy a plastic washer so you can free up your drill press for less important duty. So many new tools, so little money! Anyone tried the new "Limbingouge"? I hear it's great for turning a spindle without having to remove the limb from the tree.

Anyone know if their Erector Sets included instructions for making a lathe? Maybe to use for turning functional TinkerToys or even artistic Wiggely-Wobblies?

Woodturning is progressing so fast, it makes my head spin. Maybe I better buy the latest "must have", the new "Headshifter" so my gourd spins off center. Anyone tried it? It could only improve my looks. I ask you, "Where will it all end?" :-(

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

Hello Mac,

I've contacted Dan Hoffman and offered to do a review on the piece. He is going to send me one for the test and then I have the option of returning it or buying it. So in a few weeks, I'll have more to report. If it seems to be dangerous or not work as he is claiming, I'll probably just return it rather than give it a poor review. I own virtually all of the eccentric chucks, so it will have to be very good to get me to purchase it.

Fred Holder

Ey, easy there, the Vertilathe was my journey into turning

Hello Mac,

The recess size for mounting on the lathe spindle is the size for a Nova Chuck Insert. There is a chuck on its way for me to check out. I'll report on the news group as well as in my magazine.

Fred Holder

or an insert