How do I get from here to there?

[Baxter Smith]

Hello again,
Just sent in my first bowl pic so now my question - which I hope someone can make some suggestions on.

I have at least a dozen roughed out butternut bowls that have been sitting in boxes for 10-15 years. They were done by a family friend, but he never lived long enough to complete all of them. I bought all his turning stuff after he died. These bowls were of particular interest since my Dad had planted, then later cut the tree. Someday I wanted to finish them, and since I can't come up with anything better for family Christmas presents this year....

I have done a little spindle turning for furniture but this is new and I am not quite sure how to proceed. Ordered the Wolverine jigs that I set up today. Also ordered the Bill Grumbine DVD's on bowls which are supposed to be here by the end of the week. Guess I have the materials but the expertise is still lacking!

He explained the process to me once but it was more than just a few years ago. The first two pictures are of a rough out and what was probably one of his almost finished rejects. The third picture is of the materials I think I remember him saying he used to finish these.

The last picture is of what I tried tonight to start. If there is a better way or you have suggestions, they would be very welcome!

Mount the bowl as shown, wedging it between the tailstock and leather covered piece in the headstock, then turn the outside. Don't know about this as I knocked it loose a couple of times when I got up around the rim tonight. Not tight enough, wrong tool, wrong angle, all of the above? Use a drive center? After completing the outside, reverse and mount it in the nova chuck to finish the inside. Reverse again and mount as shown in the first picture to touch up the foot of the bowl. Any and all suggestions are welcome. I have plenty of blanks.. got that suggestion covered! Thank you!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Baxter - looks like you have a good grasp of what you need to do to turn your natural edge bowls. Knocking the bowl loose could be from an overly aggressive cut, not enough pressure from the tailstock or it could be from using a dull gouge - or the wrong type of gouge. You didn't state if you are using a bowl gouge or not...

If you can wait - watch Bill Grumbine's video before you tackle your bowls. He explains everything in great detail, including sharpening, different ways to mount your blank as well as different cuts you can get from your gouge and when to use them.

Good luck with your bowls!

[Cyril Griesbach]

Steve's given some good advice. Here is mine. As these seem to be very special rough outs to the family members and hopefully would be cherished for many many years, consider waiting until your skill, and confidence level are up to the task. Turning natural edge bowls tends to reach into the intermediate to advanced level.

If you're not in a turning club, find one. Here's how to start.

http://www.woodturner.org/community/chapters/LocalChapters.asp

Most AAW chapters will have a mentoring program where you could find someone to help you learn thereby saving countless hours and much frustration.

I hope this helps and good luck.

[Baxter Smith]

Thanks Steve. Since I didn't have anything else planned for this morning and I already had one I had taken a few digs out of .... I had a hankering to experiment. So I tried to follow your advice. Had sharpened some tools yesterday while watching the Wolverine DVD 2 or 3 times and one that someone had posted on here from YouTube (thanks someone). I thought tools should be close to okay. Cranked down the tailstock a little harder then tried to go as slow as possible to see what gouge and angle seemed to work. Got the outside turned and sanded without a catastrophe though the sanding took longer than it should have. Went up and down through the grits several times before getting most of the scratches out.

Ended up using 3 different tools on the inside while only knocking the bowl out of the chuck once!:) So much for all that sanding on the outside! Put it back in and tightened it down a little harder. Being able to reverse directions on the lathe helped in being able to see what was happening at times.

I remember the guy telling me how good power sanding was on the inside of bowls so I got out some of his little discs and went to work. He was right. I don't know if that is "cheating" but I might still be there if I hadn't. Did knock out a piece of bark when I got careless with the wrong end of the drill. Guess that was the trade off. Need to order some more of those as some of the grits are missing!
Spun it around again, resanded the outside, then finished off the foot. Didn't trim quite enough off the foot as there is still a mark from the jaws but I didn't want to make it too small. And to be honest, I was holding my breath waiting for (now that was a stupid thing to do) moment. The two Bill Grumbine DVD's are supposed to arrive sometime tomorrow. I am hoping he can get me under the 4 plus hours it took today! If he can't, I will be back here asking more questions!

Cyril, I do agree about finding a turning club in the area and having someone show me things to try before I messed those blanks up. Thats why they have been sitting in a box on a shelf for at least 10 years. Just never seemed to be able to find the time between teaching, coaching and family to find and join one. Now that I have retired from the teaching part at least, I should try and fine one. Thanks for the link. This forum is about the next best thing though! So THANK YOU!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Baxter - that's looking pretty good for a natural edge birds mouth bowl! Nice job on the sanding and finish as well!

Take a break and watch Bill's videos - it is worth the time! Meanwhile - I wish you luck in finding a local club to join - they do make a difference!

[Thomas Canfield]

One additional suggestion would be to use rubber shelf lining instead of leather for the friction drive to help eliminate the bowl shifting. I have had good success using that with jam chuck to remove bottom tendon after turning inside. I use the cheap lining at the Dollar Store or Wal-Mart. They are thin and have not left any marks. Material is cheap enough that you don't worry about making several to fit the need.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Looks good so far Baxter. What gouge are you using in the 3rd pic's?

[Baxter Smith]

Bernie,
When I was unable to make the turn at the bottom of the bowl yesterday, I stopped to find some pictures in a book. This one looked like it. Seemed to work for the turn but not the start or end. The guy in the book didn't seem to have a problem though!

I had ground it the day before using the wolverine but not the varigrind. The guy on the Youtube video I was watching showed one with a square end. I did not grind it back to square because I figured the guy before had a pretty good reason for how he had it. If you think I don't know much youre right! All the different gouges, grinds, angles, depending on woods etc. has my head spinning. No pun intended.

Had plenty of questions after yesterdays trial but thought I would wait until after watching someone who knew what they were doing (on the DVD) before I asked any here.

Did look for the closest turning club. An hour and fortyfive minutes from here at a Woodcraft store. Don't know if thats good or bad!

[Baxter Smith]

The DVD didn't come in yesterday so I tried another bowl last night. Just did a search on this site and since I couldn't come up with an answer, I am going to bug some of you with a question.
How do you keep the bark an even thickness when sanding? I thought I was just being sloppy on my first bowl so tried to stretch the paper tight and not go past the tips of the bowl. Helped on the tips but I still lost it in the valleys.
Guess I should have realized that. Too much pressure onto the bowl?

Thomas - Thanks for the suggestions about the shelf lining. Had some of the perforated kind they put on the bottoms of tool box drawers so I gave it a try. Probably not the kind you meant or I tightened down too hard. Ended up with some small dents where the perfs were. Will try one with the leather then shelf lining.

Any suggestions, comments, critiques are apreciated!