Arbortech sphero-thing: lathe substitute for bowl-making?

[Eshmiel]

This just appeared in my email - a link to the latest Arbortech gizmo at Axminster:

https://www.axminstertools.com/arbo...bortech+now+in+stock20250208Manual+-+Targeted

It looks very new but I wonder if anyone has any experience of the thing? I ask because I have no room for a lathe or the cash to buy the lathe and tooling I'd like, to make smooth & regular big bowls rather than the sort of hand-carved greenwood bowls I've been making recently. If this Arbortech gubbins really can do what the vids portray, without issue, then I'd certainly have room for one.

Any comments and observations welcome.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It's not April the first yet.

 

[Stigmorgan]

I saw this on a YouTube last week, it works really well but better on the outside than inside of a bowl, it's brilliant for making spheres. I'll see if I can find the video.

 

[Stigmorgan]

 

[Blister]

Looks to be a long time consuming job.

 

[Eshmiel]

Thanks, Stig, for the video link - worth watching to get an idea of just how precise a shape the thing can make.

It does look a longer job that the advert videos from Arbortech suggest .... but not so long as it'd take to carve those items with hand tools. Although adzing and axing out a large bowl can be faster than one might think, once the adze & axe are mastered, the result still needs a lot of perfecting. I doubt I could hand-carve a bowl of the same size as an Arbortech sphero-thingy could do it - not to the same standard of finish, at least.

If the Arbortech tool can auto-shape a regular concavity or convexity, this is the greatest difference between this new tool and their standard wood chewin' tools, which seem more oriented at carving irregular shapes "in the round". For those of us without a lathe who want to carve bowls in the same style (very smooth, regular, symmetric) as well as the the more from-the-tool, irregular and asymmetric hand carved bowls, the Arbortech spherical tool looks a good option.

A lathe and tooling to make the same thing would likely cost 4 times as much or more; and take up a great deal of room, which personally I don't have. A lathe can do a lot of other things besides bowls, of course. But I don't have a need or want to do those other things.