Rough turning bowls

Last year I had a co-worker tell me about a weird piece of wood that his dad had cut, he explained it me and I told him I would like to have it.

The wood in question turned out to be flame box elder.

I split the pieces in half length wise and sealed the ends with paint to slow down how fast they dry out and to minimize cracking.

Fast forward 11 months, I've gotten a chuck for the lathe and I'm planning to make more bowls. I used the bandsaw and made crudely round blanks from one of the halves shown above. This wood isn't completely "dry" yet but also wasn't as green as a fresh cute tree. So I decided to rough turn these and allow them to finish drying before I turn them to their final shape.

I turned two bowls from the half a log piece. The larger is just under 8" in diameter, and the smaller is around 6".  I left the wall thickness roughly 10% of the bowl diameter as is standard practice for rough turning bowls.  I weighed each bowl and then packed them in a paper bag with the shavings/chips turning them. I will weigh them regularly and once they stop losing weight (moisture) I will finish turning them. I have several more pieces of the flame box elder waiting for me to get to using it.

Carl's Bowl

Back in the spring my father-in-law asked if I needed some wood and being a wood worker/turner who heats with wood also I can always use more wood. The wood was walnut from some walnut trees being removed from his childhood home.

I processed the suitable pieces into bowl blanks and the rest will be firewood.

I mounted one blank to the lathe after roughing out a circle on the bandsaw using a screw chuck.  In the process of rough turning the outside of the bow the screw I was using as a screw chuck sheered off.

I really liked the sapwood that was in the original shape. I used come old chisels and removed enough wood around the sheered off screw to be able to remove it with some vice grips. I then mounted the bowl between centers and reshaped the outside of the bowl.

I didn't get back to this project until recently when I made a new glue block to mount the bowl to. After attaching the glue block I had to true up the outside of the bowl and hollow the inside.

Glued onto the glue block

 I finished the bowl with mineral oil.

You can see most the sapwood is gone after having to fix things along the way.  I gave the bowl to my father-in-law, Carl, as a thank you for the wood.

Green Bowl Turning

Late last summer I cut down a cherry and an apple tree in the yard, I cut some bowl blanks as I was cutting up the trees.

While hauling some firewood to the shop I got distracted by the bowl blanks and brought a couple of them to the shop. I used the band saw to cut a rough circle and then mounted the bowl to the lathe using a lag screw as a screw chuck.

I then turned then outside of the bowl and glued my glue block I've used with my other bowls on to turn the inside. The blanks weren't all the way dry and the "green" wood was fantastic to turn. Since the wood was green I could either leave the bowl thick and let it dry slowly in a bag of shavings and then true up the bowl and finish it once it was dry. Or I could make the bowl thin and allow the bowl to warp and dry on its own. I didn't want to have to wait so I chose the second option. I used mineral oil to finish the bowl, which is a food safe finish. Here is the finished Apple bowl. It has already warped and has became oval shaped.

I am looking forward to making more bowl like this one.

Snack time

I am working on a big project and I am going to make one blog post about it when it is done instead of several post along the way.

Maple bowl

I had some off cuts from the maple lamination from the Maple Mania project I did last year. I cut a circle from one of them and glue it to my bowl turning glue block. The glue block/bolt assembly can bee seen in the picture below. The finished bowl is 6.5" wide and 1" deep. I finished it with a friction polish.

I really like the colors of the different maple piece.  I am looking forward to making more bowls.

Walnut Bowl

I recently bought a drill chuck that will fit on the head and tail stock on my lathe. I bought it in order to make some repairs to the lathe but wanted to try and use it for work holding. I made a glue block using a carriage bolt and some cherry scraps. I then rough cut a circle from a walnut off cut. Then I glued the walnut circle to the cherry glue block. I think chucked the carriage bolt in the drill chuck and turned the walnut into a small bowl. It was my first attempt at a bowl and it came out pretty good. I finished the bowl with a friction polish on the lathe.

part way through the sanding process

The finished bowl

I will get a picture of the carriage bolt glue block when I make the next bowl.

I've delivered the large counter top I had been working on and need to clean up the shop now. We all ended up with the flu and the weather has been miserable so there hasn't been much going on in the shop. The next big project is going to be some book cases for the kid's rooms.