Video camera for hollow turning

[Sparky Paessler]

Well I was reading here a little while ago about some turners using a video camera to hollow vessels instead of a laser so I thought I would try it. I had a small video camera from a project so I made a holder for the end of my laser holder and installed it. Hooked it up to a small tv. I taped a plastic sheet to the tv screen and used a small white board marker to draw the tool on the sheet. Tried it out tonight hollowing out a vessel and I like how it works! Might just have to retire the laser!

[Peter Blair]

Hey Sparky!
I too thought it was a really interesting idea but after trying it I'm not too convinced that my setup worked any better than my laser AND there is a lot more set up for me. I think it is just one more tool that I now have at my disposal.
I wonder what other will say?

[Thom Sturgill]

I have seen both Trent Bosh and Tom Steyer demonstrating their rigs. I will have to say that Trent's impressed me in ways that lasers never have. Sparky, use a ruler to mark a line around your cutter whatever depth you want the bowl or form. Due to the fact that the image is not 1:1 with the actual you need to measure from the cutter and mark the screen. Now you know when you are at the correct depth regardless of the direction of your cut. A laser will not do that since it only measures at one point.

[Sparky Paessler]

I have seen both Trent Bosh and Tom Steyer demonstrating their rigs. I will have to say that Trent's impressed me in ways that lasers never have. Sparky, use a ruler to mark a line around your cutter whatever depth you want the bowl or form. Due to the fact that the image is not 1:1 with the actual you need to measure from the cutter and mark the screen. Now you know when you are at the correct depth regardless of the direction of your cut. A laser will not do that since it only measures at one point.

Thom I agree that it seems to me to be much better than a laser. If you look close at the screen in the picture above you will see that I have two circles around my cutter. One at 1/8" and one at 1/4" (actual measure at the cutter, not on the screen). The image on the screen is about double the actual size. After using it i do think I will drop the height of the TV and get it closer to the height of the vessel. Maybe get it just above the top of the motor housing. That way i don't have to look up so far to see it. (it is further away from the turning vessel than it appears to be in the picture).

[Peter Blair]

Good points Thom and Sparky. When I hollow I use 3/16 tool steel buts sharpened to a small round which for me anyway equates almost to a point.
Sparky, i built a platform that sits directly on top of my head stock, seems to me to be about the right location. I did notice on your photo that your camera shows a MUCH larger picture than I have. I couldn't figure out how to make it bigger. I am using a web cam and am not a pc guy so am unaware if I need a special app or ????

[Thom Sturgill]

Ahh! I thought that you had a large disk type cutter.

[Sparky Paessler]

Thom - Yes it is hard to see what size cutter is on it with it in the vessel! I'm using a CI5 round cutter from Easy Woods. I think it is about 3/8" in diameter.

Peter - I am just using a camera out of a stoplight and taking the composite video out of it and feeding it straight into the TV. That is just the size I got for the height I have the camera at. I'm not running it thru a PC or anything.

[Thom Sturgill]

I couldn't figure out how to make it bigger. I am using a web cam and am not a pc guy so am unaware if I need a special app or ????

Camera output is in dots per line and number of lines. A lot of early web cams were only 640x480 which was early VGA standard. Standard TV is slightly larger at 720x480. HD has several standards, for example: HD720=1280x720 and HD1020=1920x1080

The TV may resize its input, but size on the screen is mostly a function of screen size and distance from the camera to the subject. If your arm is too high above the turning the image will be smaller and a zoom lens would be needed. Of course that would probably not be practical.

If you have a monitor with an RCA video input (composite video) or an S-Video input then the output of the typical security cam can be fed directly to the monitor. A web cam is probably a USB output which would require a PC, Notebook, or Tablet to interpret though some new TVs also accept USB inputs though mostly to read static files off of memory sticks.