Video camera aimed at a lathe with a monitor. The refresh rate is in sync with the rpm of the lathe. This will allow you to see what the piece you're working on will look like when you turn it off.

Alternate design consists of a strobe light synced with your lathe. I'm picturing either design as built in to a high-end lathe.
-- Worldgineer, May 23 2005

Pretty good one, World . . . but will it be just off-pace enough to gradually illuminate the entire surface area (appearing to turn by virtue of refresh at like 2 RPM?)

Kerbun! [+]
-- contracts, May 23 2005


So you optically freeze a perfectly axisymmetric object to see what it will look like when it stops spinning along the axis of symmetry? Doesn't such an object -by definition- look the same regardless of angular position?
-- Freefall, May 23 2005


[FF] Often you aren't turning something perfectly axisymmetric. Take a table leg that starts off square and goes round for example. Or the texture of a wood piece - have I sanded enough? am I getting too close to that knot? is that nick I made earlier completely gone?
-- Worldgineer, May 23 2005


I had that same thought, [freefall], but gave some further consideration: due to the speed of the spin, I've noticed that the edges can look quite blurry when working on a lathe.
-- contracts, May 23 2005


OK worldgineer, I submit to that. I hadn't considered things like material inclusions (knots) and surface finishes for wood turning. I guess the square-post-to-turned-spindle could benefit as well, as you'll be able to see when the flats are gone.

Bone withdrawn, Bun given.
-- Freefall, May 23 2005


Great idea, I'm a lathe man myself, or at least aspiring to be. It's real easy to get started and you can make some real nice shapes. But to do it right takes a lot of practice. This idea would come in handy on my workbench.
-- zeno, May 23 2005


A strobe light would be quite cheap, and timing could be set by hand. Discharge lighting might also work if your lathe has an integer gear ratio.

But beware the dangers of an apparently stationary object.
-- Ling, May 24 2005


Why do you need to be so high-tech? Surely you could simply take a belt off a pulley on the lathe and have it drive a slotted disk in front of a masked light source. If the pulleys at each end were the same diameter you'd automatically get the timing right.
-- Gordon Comstock, May 24 2005


CNC milling machines allow you to look at how the object looks at every stage in the milling process. Its not a camera that shows you, the mill follows the blueprint which in turn can be watched on a computer screen.
-- 10clock, May 24 2005


agreed, this idea needed some unabubbing.
-- zeno, May 25 2005


I know I have used handheld strobe-light tachometers with a knob for setting speed and an LCD readout for flash-rate. Google for one of those.

Good idea, though.
-- baconbrain, May 25 2005


You could attach a zoetrope around whatever you're machining...
-- Detly, May 25 2005



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