Musing about tomorrow's lathes. (I'm becoming cognitively deprived)

The 2010 VB36,000 wood lathe. Complete with a 410 hp, supercharged v-10. Chrome pipes, of course. A three-dimensionally rotatable headstock. Six inch diameter, titanium-alloy spindle. Super high-tech "magnetic field" type bearings (no metal on metal contact, for optimum smoothness and wearability). And a 7000lb, perfectly machined cast-iron, diamond encrusted stand. Oh, and a cup holder for my coffee. :D Dan

Built-in vacuum system.

Computerized control panel with persistent defaults and TRUE rpm reading.

Computerized spindle lock with push-button re-indexing.

Laser contour marking for spindle work.

More support for (and offerings of) jigs and such.

Reduction in prices (due to popularity, of course!).

Available in your choice of colors ;-)

Hm....

The Stubby already has the built-in vacuum system so you can strike that one off. Also, since you get two banjos with it, the second one can be used for many purposes. I use it to hold the trap for my boring bar.

Bill

I'm still in the "cheap lathe" category, so a stubby is WAY outside my means.

I was thinking of a bed-indexed table with tapped holes in the top for fastening things to, like a router jig for fluting or a precision face-truing jig.

Arch wrote: (clip) What do you guys want or expect to see in woodturning lathes for 2010? ^^^^^^^^^^^^

2010 may be too soon for the real improvements to materialize, but this is what I foresee:

If you want to picture the lathe of the future, you have only to look at the changes which have occurred in several other technical fields: automobiles, sewing machines, cameras and machine tools. This will take time, because the wood lathe of today is very primitive-- at a stage comparable to the horseless carriage. It's ahead of the horse and buggy, or the needle and thread, but, wow, what a future. Step pulleys and manually controlled speed will be replaced by feedback systems, which sense the load, and optimize the speed.. The tool will no longer get dull. Gouges will be tubular, and will rotate, so the part that is not touching the wood will pass over a sharpening system. The design of a bowl will be done on a computer screen, with a mouse and a keyboard. Once the form is established, pressing "Enter"will cause the tool to find the wood surface and begin removing everything that is not a bowl. There will be stored programs, similar to those in the modern sewing machine, which can produce "features" on demand, all perfectly formed and completely reproducible.

Of course, the requirements of automation will make it impossible to deal with the variations in old-fashioned wood. Things like bark inclustions, excess spalting and odd grain patterns would be death on the idealized programs of the future. So turning blanks will be manufactured out of wood /plasticcomposition, to a controlled consistency, with grain patterns molded in. Every wood blank will come with an ASA rating, which will tell the computer how it needs to be turned. You will be able to previsualize a bowl, set up the parameters, set the lathe in motion, and go do something else. It will be glorious.

There will still be people like Roy Underhill around, who will keep the old methods from dying out completely, for the sake of a few nostalgia buffs in our midst.

No bed. Headstock and tailstock to be suspended in the air in perfect alignment in a strong magnetic field. Indestructable porcelain composite chisels. Integrated 5 axis AIC (Artificial Intelligence Controlled) milling machine and laser engraver to handle unexpected influxes of orders. AM/FM/mp3 stereo. Cup holder with a force field top to protect my coffee from dust.

Thanks for all your great answers. I hope I get to see your ideas actualized.

I hope Leif is well. I expected a built in LDD vat and sprayer to be up front. Maybe he won't wait for 2010. ;) Arch

Fortiter,

Before the the new age lathe gets started working on the wood, it has to get to the wood. How about a crane which will grab the wood blank and mount it on the lathe. This would save a lot of time and prevent bad backs. I know a lot of doctors would hate this lathe, and probably try and prevent it from hitting the market because it would take away one of their main income producers.

I think that John Nichols sells these with many of his lathes. A number of the Stubby group have made their own using a highly-discounted electric hoist from Harbor Freight.

Bill

Hmmm... my lathe happens to sit under a 16" steel I-beam, I bet I could put a really big hoist on that! Unfortunately, my lathe won't handle anything bigger than I can easily lift anyway :-(

I don't see much change other than the color of the paint and an increase in their price in the next 10 years.

The only real changes in the wood lathe in the past 2408 years have been the addition of ball bearings and the electric motor. Other than that, they still spin a piece of wood between two support pedestals so we can hold some type of tool against it with the intent of changing its shape . With this slow rate of evolution, why should we expect any major changes in the next 10 years? I would be happy with some simple improvements, like someone making a lathe with something better than ball bearings. One would think that they could at least use a spherical roller bearing or Timken taper bearings so that they could be preloaded and adjusted for "Zero" end play. It seem rediculous to me that anyone making a lathe that sells for $5000 will worry about an additional $200.

Most of us would be happy if a lathe could be made with tool rests, motor shafts, and drive belts that didn't break; lathe beds that didn't twist as they aged; head and tailstocks that were lined up when we got them and that stayed that way; and locking mechanisms that worked without our having to use a hammer.

Now, if someone wanted to be innovative they could improve the tool rest. My ideal tool rest would be adjustable in length from "Zero" to the full distance between centers (no more changing rests or using more than one banjo), adjustable to any inside or outside shape (always turning with minimum tool overhang), be infinitely rigid, and have the ability to do all of this automatically. I don't think that I am asking for much.

While I am dreaming, I would like to see someone develop a tool steel that had the wear resistance of a 2060 steel AND the ability to be sharpened to as keen an edge as a High Carbon Steel. So far, those two elements have not been mutually inclusive.

Russ Fairfield Post Falls, Idaho

Gee Leo, they already have that system. Its called a CNC machine.

automobiles,

inclustions,

Nope, we're gonna see massive improvements. With voice recognition in computers, the lathe of tomorrow will be just like the one's aboard Star Trek: "Computer, increase speed 10 rpm", "Computer, stop the lathe", etc. No more reaching across the way to stop a disintegrating bowl.

Of course, the voice recognition module (vrm) will be a bit extra over the standard price...

...Kevin

While you're saying "Com..." I'll already have hit the stop button. Positionable controls (no reaching across anything) are much more effective (and cheaper) than hokey gimmicks like voice control.

Though it would be sort of amusing to find your lathe taking directions from Meat Loaf playing on the stereo - "... all of a sudden the lathe was going like a Bat out of Hell..."

I'll buy it when it responds to "Aaaarrrghhh!"

Cup holders! Way to go. My computer has two of those little deals.

Barry

I want my controls wireless on a wristband. And an automatic stop touch sensor on my face mask right in front of my nose. It won't protect my face, but at least the lathe will be off when I fall across it unconscious.

-mike paulson, fort collins, co