Craftsmanship in Wood

Here are some pics of a funky tool I came across the other day while trawling Japanese used machinery websites. They call it an 'arm router':
Motorized up and down is always nice:

That thing needs some hazard zones marked around it!!!

Conversely, I loved the Shinx on the blog. Watching those wafer thin shavings drop out of the chute is just dreamy...

I'm wondering how it is meant to be used. It seems like the base of the machine would need to be co-planer with the wood surface, which suggests that the machine would sit next to a leveled support table of some kind. And then I wonder what sort of work is done with it? It doesn't seem to have a tracing stylus, so it appears that it does not function as a duplicator. So, that leaves freehand carving(?)

Yxoc wrote:Conversely, I loved the Shinx on the blog. Watching those wafer thin shavings drop out of the chute is just dreamy...

I am a few days away from paying for that Shinx, the white one pictures in the blog. Her are some more pictures:
The Shinx grinder, which I will try to get later this summer when my piggy bank is sound again, looks like this:
They are fully automatic grinders, so they are more precise (compared to manually operated grinders). Not sure if the Shinx grinder is better or worse than the Marunaka automatic grinder, but I imagine they are very comparable. The dealer suggested it is best practice to get a grinder and surfacer made by the same company, as they have the best 'chemistry'

Looking forward to seeing it in action on your shop floor,congratulations. I'm sure that you will put it to good use. The grinder deal seems to make sense. Are there a few sets of blades with the unit Chris? I priced out an International general helix-head thickness planer yesterday. For a 15" they were asking $2100 floor price, would let it go for $1895 plus $600 for a general 10105CFMi 1.5hp dust collector. All in $2794.35 CD's.. These units are brand new right off of the shop floor. I was just shopping for fun, although there are days when i could certainly use a thickness planer,or do i mean to say, a super surfacer?

A thickness planer has the usual cylindrical cutter head with 3 or 4 knives, typically, while a super surfacer has a fixed knife.

The grinder is actually the critical piece of the surfacer puzzle. I'm looking to get a fully automatic one as these obtain the most precise results. Might not be until summer though.

There are a lot of nice Japanese machines out there - check out this Miyagawa hollow chisel mortiser with hydraulic drive:

Chris,
I didn't realise that the purchase was imminent. It will be great to see it in use in captivity. When you explained on the blog that the system required a grinder - I had in my mind a bench grinder style thing with some specialist jigs. I didn't expect the grinder to be nearly as large as the surfacer!! Clearly it's a central component in the whole process.