I was just digging through videos for the Scrap Bin Wood Challenge, whereby participants try to make something useful out of their cut-offs, when this shop trick caught my eye. Woodworker Patrick Curtis (who's using scraps to turn his lathe into a disc sander, which seems crazy to me, but then I have an irrational fear of lathes) has put his planer on a turntable.

I've been in a fair amount of shops and have seen tons of in-shop videos, but I've never seen this done before. Obviously it would be a disaster if planing long boards, but for doing just a few small pieces like drawer panels and such, it seems as ingenious as it is space-saving, and obviates you having to walk around to the back of the planer to retrieve the piece.

So here's my question to those of you who spend more time in shops than I do: Why have I never seen this before? Please choose one of the following or give me an "E:"

A. People who work shorter materials do this all the time; you've just never been in a shop that does.

B. People who work shorter materials usually don't do this, because even though it looks handy, there is an issue with ______.

C. This isn't typically done because it's only efficient for running a few pieces at a time; if doing 20 boards, for instance, the constant rotating becomes more work than it's worth.

D. You've never seen this before because as unlikely as it sounds, to my knowledge this guy is actually the first to do it.

Feedback please.

And for those of you interested in the disc-sander/lathe, here's Curtis' entire video: