Multi Axis? Facetnating!
charlie belden
We tend to turned to smooth continuous flowing curves. Flat spots and interrupted curves are to be ELIMINATED (at all cost!). THAT is the way turnings are SUPPOSED to look!
Well that may be true - if you turn all the way to ROUND ie. circular cross sections.
But What If - you turn to only PART of Round? What if you turn only to ARCS? And what if you turn arcs - on two or more different axes? Now where you arcs intersect - you have lens shaped cross sections (if you turn on two axes), triangularish cross sections (if you turn on three axes), etc..
With multi axis turning you also have EDGES (where arcs intersect) - and the edge line doesn't have to be straight down the side of the piece - it can curve and twist around the piece. And with multi axis turning you have more than one outside face. And a face can twist around part of the piece - or all the way around the piece. AND you can have multiple faces (facets) - turning and twisting down around the piece.
Facets on a Round and Brown piece may be a No No - but on multi axis pieces they can be opportunities to create interesting pieces.
A while back Peter Rand posted pictures of a three axes piece he titled Femme Noir. Here are multiple views of an idea that was inspired by that piece - done in virtual 3D using SketchUp (free from Google). It's done on three Crossing But NOT Intersecting Axes using just two profiles. This axes orientation results in a Twisted Outcome - with multiple faces / facets. This changes the look of the profile of the piece as you vary your vantage point.
Here are the three forms used, one for each of 3 axes, the axes being 120 degrees apart, each axis center on the top being 120 degrees clockwise from its corresponding center on the bottom.
Here are two of those profiles (Red & Green) overlapped as they would be if turned on two crossing but not intersecting axes in the same blank, and their resulting overlapped Common Volume - and then the two axes common volume overlapping the third profile (Blue) on its own axis to create the final form. Note the three different colored faces / facets in this Outcome.
Round and Brown is nice. But twisted multi axis turning can be facetnating.
. It shows how close you have come in that analysis. I'm amazed because I come from this from a very empirical direction and am just getting the gist of what might happen when I pit a piece on the lathe! Congratulations and keep it up.
