Artistry in Wood
by Ed
206-714-4336
email - Ed_ArtistryinWoodbyEd.com
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Bowl
Turning
101
Before you can make a bowl you must have a piece of wood. In this case, the wood is a block of maple I purchased from a store on the southern Oregon coast close to the California border. The block you see here has been drying for several years and is ready to cut into managable sizes. This particular piece weighed over fifty pounds and is large enough to make several bowls.
Here is the piece I removed from the larger block. I rounded it using my bandsaw to shorten the turning process and to make it more evenly balance on the lathe.
The next task is to mount the block on the lathe. I have several options available to me and, in this case, I chose to use a product I purchased from OneWay, a company in Canada.
This metal ring is fastened to the wood block with screws. The three bolts will hold it to the piece of equipment you see on the next page.
The second piece has been screwed onto the lathe is is ready to receive the maple block.
The maple block has been turned round. Notice the crack on the face of the block. It will have to be removed during the turning process. If left in the wood, it will continue to grow over time.
The face has been turned flat and now the crack must be removed. This will determine, to some extent, the final shape of the bowl.
The crack is now gone so I can continue shaping the outside of the bowl.
The protrusion I left on the bottom of the bowl is called a tenon. It will be used to hold the bowl when it is turned around to be hollowed out.
The bowl has been sanded on the outside down to 400 grit. Now is the best time to work on the outside of the bowl, especially the bottom. When the bowl is turned around for hollowing the bottom will be impossible to reach.
Below is a chuck used to hold the bowl for hollowing out the inside. The four jaws will grip the tenon I left on the bottom of the bowl.
The chuck is now fastened onto the tenon. I mount the chuck with the bowl still attached to the lathe so I can run the lathe to see if the chuck is running true. If the chuck "wiggles" as the shaft turns, I know the inside of the bowl will not be parallel to the outside.
Hollowing has begun. This is the most difficult process in bowl making. The thickness of the wall must be proportional to the size of the bowl. If left too thick, the bowl will be too heavy and not have the right feel. If turned too thin, the bowl may be ruined.
Further along in the hollowing process. In this photo, you can see the dust hood (the black box) used to remove wood dust while sanding. The bar in front of the bowl is the tool rest used to support the cutting tools.
The bowl is now hollowed and ready to be sanded. I sand down to 600 grit and then apply a sanding sealer.
This is what often happens when the sealer is applied. Notice the scratches in the picture below. They were not visible before the sealer was applied. Back to sanding!
Sanded, sealed, and ready to be removed from the chuck. The next step is to remove the tenon from the bottom of the bowl. Again, several methods are available to accomplish this. In this case, I will use a piece of equipment called a vacuum chuck. By pulling a vacuum on the inside of the bowl, it is held in place while I shape the bottom of the bowl. The next page shows the vacuum chuck in use.
Here the bowl is sitting next to the homemade vacuum chuck. My vacuum pump is located outside my shop to cut down on the noise. A vacuum line runs from the pump to the headstock of my lathe. (the large yellow piece in the photo)
Here is the bowl being held onto the vaccum chuck.
The finished product!
