I've thought about it many times. Now I turn on my ShopSmith, using scraps I pick up while traveling or scraps from home projects. I have found it difficult to sell my work on ebay or espsy or such, as there is so much competition. But it makes great gifts. Penn State, and other sites have really nice portable lathes. Turning is really quiet, so I cannot see how it would bother neighbors. And Like I said, it is fun to find local woods for projects. For now, I have my knife and a book on beginning whitling...but I haven't begun yet.