I've done some multi axis turning and some eccentric turning but hadn't gotten to multi center turning that had one axis at 90 degrees to the other axes. This Winged Ceremonial Cup is a first delving into this interesting branch of turning. Here's where I'm going - I think.
Here's where I was at after roughing in the arcs for the Red, Yellow and Green axes. The tapering on the right "wing" was done while on the Yellow axis - they left "wing" hasn't been tapered yet.
This multi-axes turning can let you turn arcs, parts of a circle, rather than full round
The upper arc surface is turned on the GREEN axis, the lower arc surface is turned on the RED axis and at the sides of what will be the cup, the upper arc sufrace is turned on the YELLOW axis. The cup itself will be turned round on the BLUE axis while chucked up and supported on the other end with a live center. The result is a cup - with wings. I've left a lot of "meat" on the wings because I intend to carve the wings - with a small Proxxon disk sander,
Cutting the "long axes" arcs between centers didn't take much Through The Shadows turning. But when mounted in a chuck and turning the bottom of the cup on the Fourth Axis, those wings were waiting to bite my hand - not when turning it - but when sanding.
BTW - having a chalk line on the piece to be able to see where to stop turning is a good idea.
Now for another example of Serendipitous Synergy. I've got a carved winged cup - with a round bottom. I'd just finished a suspended lidded box with pull amphora - also out of claro walnut. The pull for the amphora's lid is concave on top. If I were to place the winged cup - on top of the amphora lid's pull - would it balance on it?
Yup.
Yes, it'll spin and it stays balanced on the pull. You can get this thing to spin by blowing hard on one of the wings.
To see a YouTube video of this thing and this thing in action CLICK HERE.
Didn't plan on this piece having movement. But when something like this gets handed to you - it's worth pursuing. I see variations of this idea in a future piece or two.
Do you have any ideas that could use this balancing act / movement thing?
more to come?