FITTING THE BOWL BLANK
• Select your bowl blank and measure the diameter. In this case the bowl blank is 13”
(330mm) and a thickness of 4-1/2” (110mm).
• Screw your faceplate to the front of the bowl ready to attach to your lathe.
Choose a chuck to suit the diameter of the bowl.
I recommend that the chuck jaws should be approximately 30% of the diameter of the
block held. For this particular block we will use a 4”(100mm) jaw set fitted to a Nova
Scroll chuck. As you can see it is important not to use too small a set of jaws for the
size of the bowl and risk the bowl coming loose.
• Set your lathe to a moderate speed (ours is 600 Rpm) and attach the bowl to the lathe.
• Adjust the chuck until almost closed, measure the inside diameter with callipers and
mark a circle with your pencil on the face of the bowl.
• Using a 3/8” (10mm) gouge or specialist tool cut the spigot accurately to suit the chuck.
The spigot height should be approximately 1/4”(6mm).
• Make sure the face is flat for the chuck to register against.
MARKING OUT THE BOWLS TO CUT
Proceed to face the front of the bowl and prepare to mark out the bowls you will reclaim.
It is important that we carefully consider the wood in the mother bowl and the finished
shape
before we mark out the pitch circles on the face of the bowl. The aim is to save as much
wood as possible without compromising the largest most valuable bowl.
• Allow a rim of 1” (25mm) for wet wood or 3/4”(19mm) for dry. More can be allowed for
a designer rim.
Do not let the bowlsaver dictate the shape of the finished bowl.
• Once you have made a decision mark the pitch circle for that bowl, then divide the rest
of the face of the bowl up according to the number of additional bowls that you wish to
core out. This will largely depend on the depth of the blank.
• A blank of 3” (75mm) in depth will produce two bowls, a blank of 4” to 5” (100 to
125mm) in depth will safely produce three and a 6”(150mm) blank four.
Do not to be
too greedy.
• We will now cut a spigot on the front of the blank to enable the core to be remounted
for the next bowl.
• The tools I am using to shape the bottom of this bowl are the 5/8” (16mm) and 1/2”
(13mm) replaceable tip bowl gouges available from Woodcut.
• Now shape the bowl to your desired shape, keep the bevel rubbing and cut with the
grain and slice the wood away.
What a great feeling to see shavings peeling off really sharp tools.
• Now remove the faceplate and fit the bowl squarely in the chuck and tighten firmly.
SHAPING THE BOTTOM OF THE BOWL
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