First attempt at figure

[Baxter Smith]

This is the last piece of an apple tree I cut the limbs off of several years ago and left as a stub. Because its branch ends were pretty weathered, it was just a leftover after cutting the solid sections out of the trunk. I put anchorseal on it rather than tossing it onto the brush pile. Cut the ends back and it seemed to be relatively solid.
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Since this was a piece I wasn't going to keep, the piths on opposite ends were not lined up very well. Debated on how to fix that then ended up planing down one side so I could attach a faceplate that would be roughly parallel to the 3 points.

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Here is a picture of the tool I used to cut the angle for the dovetail recess. It was just shy of 1/4" in depth.
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Flipped it around and got ready to hollow it out. I am not having to tighten my Nova Chuck nearly as hard with this method and it seems much more secure than the tenon with the jaws I have. I think/hope my technique is getting better too though.:)
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Wet it to brighten it up. With the cyclone running it tends to dry out the surface.
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I was not sure how I was going to finish the bottom when I turned it. After looking at a recent post by Leo Van Der Loo I have that figured out. Thanks Leo!:D Everyones posts and pictures add so much. Perhaps this one will too for someone out there! All suggestions/comments on how to improve the process I used are welcome!

[John Keeton]

Baxter, surely you are going to keep this one!!?! That is some beautiful color.

I am going to have to try this recess thing. When I first tried to turn a bowl, I roughed out a small piece of walnut with a recess and promptly blew it off the lathe. I know now that I didn't have enough support around the recess.

After reading all the responses on your thread, and with Leo's tutorial, I think this may be something to try. I appreciate you leading the way!

[David Christopher]

Baxter, thats a very nice looking bowl and didnt have much waste...good job

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking bowl Baxter out of some pretty wood.

[Thomas Canfield]

Baxter,

Bill Grumbine has an excellent DVD that shows turning the whole crotch section as a winged bowl and includes finishing the bottom. Something to look forward to in your progress.

I have also found it helpful to use a large Forstner bit (2 3/4" works for my Talon and Stronghold chucks with screw) to get a flat spot after leveling the blank up on my drill table with shim strips. I use a small bulls-eye level on the spot after changing to drill the 3/8" screw hole. The faced spot will also work for my 2 1/2" Don Pencil faceplates.

[David E Keller]

Nice work on a nice piece of wood.

[Sid Matheny]

Great save and I have to say that is the best looking apple wood I have ever seen!


Sid

[George Guadiane]

Baxter, you did a GREAT job and made a lot of good decisions in using a difficult piece of wood.
I also need to say that you did an excellent job of documenting your process... Which is the ONLY reason I'm offering a suggestion (if I had only seen the finished product, I wouldn't have noticed:

If you had flipped the blank over, you might have gotten more of the crotch curly in the bottom of your finished bowl.

If you notice, in the third picture, where the face plate is attached, the figure is VERY prominent, and if you look between the branches, you'l see that it looks like it goes virtually all the way through, but STRONG under the faceplate. If you had put your recess on that side, you would have been cutting down TO that instead of cutting it away.

PLEASE understand, I'm not complaining, it's a great bowl, but when someone pointed this same thing out to me a few years ago, it helped me. I get a lot more figure in my turnings now, because I'm taking little things like that into consideration before getting too far into the actual turning process. In fact, I usually true and round a blank with figure between centers before deciding which side should be up.

[Dan Forman]

That's a gorgeous bowl!

Dan

[Baxter Smith]

Thank you all. It ended up being a pretty piece of wood.

John, I am considering that. Its only half done though, so no telling what time or this turner may do to it!

Thomas - I have the DVD and that seed was planted the first time I watched it!:D Thanks for the idea about using the forstner bit. I don't know if it would work with my jaws or not. I will have to check. On this particular piece I don't know If I would have had the depth for a big screw. I went and got shorter screws for the faceplate.

George - It didn't end up with as much figure as I had hoped for. When deciding on how to do this, there were several factors that came into play. I looked at a couple of bowls sitting on the bench that were coated with anchorseal and there pith was at the top. I tried to remember a few others I had seen and they were the same .. so.. thats the way its supposed to be!:) I also knew that I wanted to keep this one more plate like. After truing up the bottom I immediately put the recess in. Still always afraid of running out of wood! Ended up with more of a curve to the rim than I should have which resulted in me removing more on the inside.
I don't consider any of your comments as complaints at all. They are the reason I took the sequence of pictures and posted them. They are exactly what I had hoped for! As a beginner, I also find the posts and pictures of "how you got there" to be extremely helpful in trying to figure out how to accomplish similar kinds of things.
Great idea about truing up between centers before deciding.
Thanks again to all.

Baxter

[Keith Burns]

Excellent piece of work Baxter with a beautiful piece of wood. Well done.

[Reed Gray]

You can also use a forstner bit to drill a recess in the top of the bowl to expand into rather than using a face plate. You do want the jaws to bottom out in the recess, and you do not want the face of the chuck to contact the wood.

robo hippy

[Dave Ogren]

Baxter,
Please educate me. That tool in your picture...is that what you have been using to cut your recesses ??
I have been using a 1/2" x 1/2" square Scraper ?? or what ever it is called The end or relief is about 70 or 80 degrees top to bottom. Is yours faster and easier ?? My way works great except for the dovetail part, I have to lift the handle giving it a negative rake, and turn the right side up so the tool is diamond shaped. I don't know any better. I am thinking your way and tool might be better. Please advise the dimensions and how you hold your tool.
Thanks for the help.

Dave