Articles

I’ve been working behind the scenes on some ambitious projects, and struggling to find machinists who are not only willing to work on one-off designs, but prepared to challenge what they believe to be possible in terms of precision. The struggle to find machinists has been a steeper hill to climb than learning CAD modelling, with no summit in sight.

The primary engineering challenge in developing many of my projects, most notably Leoht Version 2, has been component modelling in CAD (computer-aided design). While Leoht Version 1 relied on hand-fabricated templates remodelled into CAD, this workflow lacked the dimensional precision required for tighter tolerances and prevented direct design iteration.

I've been in the market for a cast iron router table for some time but couldn't find anything suitable. The most common model repackaged by several manufacturers mounted the router with a series of t slots and could not easily accommodate a router lift or a router with one inbuilt.

This is the original incarnation of the DML24 from Record Power. It’s a three-speed wood turning lathe made around 1997 and is about as basic as a lathe gets.

I recently began wood turning having acquired and restored a ‘90s vintage Record DML-24 lathe. One of my first projects was, rather ambitiously, a tulip bowl which presented my first real challenge.