Legacy router system

[Todd Bin]

I am curious if anyone has one of the Legacy woodturning systems. It has a router mounted on rails and you can move the router in the x, y plane and also the z direction because it is a plunge router. The stock is mouted in the base and you can turn it. It appears you can make some pretty nice molding etc.

I was curious what others thought of this. Does it work well. etc.

[Wayne Cannon]

The Legacy is NOT a "woodturning" system. It is an "ornamental mill". It works very well for what it is designed to do (see their web site at http://legacywoodworking.com/). While you can do many "turnings" with an ornamental mill, for "turnings" I would strongly suggest a lathe instead (unless you want "spiral" turnings, that is).

To do traditional spindle turnings on a Legacy ornamental mill takes a number of router bits, significant planning, lots of router bit changes, and has lots of opportunity for mistakes. Many turnings (i.e., those that don't fit the profile of a router bit, such as a large bead or curved taper) require making a template for the router carriage to follow.

There is very little reasonable overlap between a Legacy mill and a lathe (such as a simple, straight-tapered spindle). From their web site, you will see that the mill's strengths are in spiral and fluted spindles, decorative flat-work such as rosettes, etc. The mill can also do linear router-based molding, although I think a router table is the better choice for most of them.

Having said that, the mill CAN do simple turnings made up of segments whose cross-sections fit router bit profiles, such as beads, coves, shoulders, etc.