Portable lathe
I had this idea of having a portable little machine shop, or at least the mother and father of all machine tools, a lathe. Portable may be a bit generous. A movable and self-contained one anyway.
Portable case
Mostly the case would work as a shield to keep the chip distribution down and as protection from outside things getting into the lathe. If the case was easy to close, it would also mae a nice dust shield and storage. But anoter aspect a self contained box has is that it could potentially be picked up and moved somewhere else for use.
A lathe alone is a neat thing and enables many cutting, drilling and turning operations. It might be possible to do even more using some extensions, or it might be possible to have separate mill, drill, saws, grinders, and whatnot along.
Machine
I have the taig, so I might use that or hunt for a second machine.
Remaining issues
- Case. Materials, size, and structure.
- Motors and power options.