Winged Apple Bowl

[Baxter Smith]

When I first got the Bill Grumbine DVD’s a month ago the winged bowl he made out of apple caught my eye.

This branch from a King tree needed to be removed and looked like a suitable candidate.
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My bandsaw didn’t have enough resaw height for all of it so used handsaw.
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There was one piece of bark on the bottom corner of the bowl that lasted longer than I would have liked so it got turned down smaller and shorter than I had hoped.
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Using a tenon or my smaller jaws would have resulted in a better appearing bottom but I had had some previous difficulty holding on with those. I opted for the larger jaws and more metal to wood contact. Decided to worry about the looks later if it made it that far. I did limit the recess depth to 1/8 of an inch.
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Turned it around and within 30 seconds it had come off. No damage though so put it back in, tightened up a little bit more, and went to the sharpener. (The wolverine jig makes a great difference for me) By the time I had trued up the top it was down to 5/16. I tried turning the bowl wall thicknes to match. I had, but then lost the smooth curve where the sides and bottom of the bowl meet. I didn't dare take any more off the bottom so left as is.
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Reed Grays idea of using lemon juice to remove stain worked well. I am paying attention to your suggestions!
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The base is not to my liking but.... Don't know what the options will be when it drys. The bottom of the bowl where the recess is has only an 1/8 inch thickness now so returning may not happen. On a piece like this, do you just have to hand sand later?

All suggestions for improvement or whatever are appreciated!

Oh yes, the 3 clear shower curtain liners I picked up and hung last night work well!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Nice looking bowl! Gauging depth comes with doing and lots of practice! Real nice grain on this one! Make sure you bag it or something to slow down the drying process and prevent cracks!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Baxter I think if that were mine I would really soak it good with danish oil or antique oil. I think that would keep it from cracking. Otherwise like Steve said get it bagged so it keeps it from drying to quick.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Baxter yes place it in a brown paper bag, but before you do this soak a bit of CA in the endgrain, look at the annotations, I also would probably have placed my bowl closer to the crotch, not that it is any better, just that the knot would have been at the side where you automatically turn more wood away, but you have to call it as you see it when the blank is still rough

[Tony Wheeler]

aren't these fun I have done several now however I personally like a tenton better than a recess for twice turning

[ROY DICK]

Baxter,
NIce propeller bowl you turned.
What speed did you use to turn this?

Roy

[John Keeton]

Baxter, what are the dimensions on this bowl? Looks like that sucker would wobble pretty good on my little lathe.

Nice job.

[Baxter Smith]

Steve - It went into the bag as soon as it came off the lathe.

Bernie - I didn't apply anything to this one before bagging but I will try Danish Oil or Antique. I have both. This still needs to be sanded. Is one better than another for preventing cracking? Seems like the antique oil might gum up the paper more later to begin with.

Leo - I dont have any CA glue. Tried to find some at the local stores after you suggested adding them to knots. Ordered some from Woodcraft. I wanted to mount the faceplate closer to the crotch but there was too much taper there on the opposite side toward the crotch. The placement was due to having the most thickness on the opposite side to work with.

Tony- They are fun. I tried my smaller jaws on the other (thinner )half last night and blew it out. I don't have enough wood left to really make anything out of it but I am going to try and screw my faceplate back on and try a tenon. See if I can get that to hold for truing up the opposite face. I hate to only learn something that can't be done from this piece.:)

Roy - I think the speed was around 650 or maybe as much as 800. Thats where the lathe vibration seemed to smooth out the best.

John - When I first thought about trying this a month ago I was going to entitle the post "I don't need a bigger lathe".;) Figured that would grab everyones attention!
Just went out to the shop to measure. The dimensions are 9 1/2" at its widest corner to corner. 1 3/8'" tall with 1/4" thick wings. The bowl itself is 3 5/8" wide. It was not a big piece to start with. My lathe may be slightly larger than yours weight wise but I bet you could have handled it. There was some wobble at the 350 turn on but it seemed to smooth out pretty well around the 650 point. I may have even have turned up to 800. Good luck when you try it!:)

[Dick Strauss]

Baxter,
You are doing quite well being so new to turning! Most folks wouldn't attempt a piece like this so soon. Keep up the good work!

Hint-The little tenon with bark on it (shown in one of the pics) should never be considered for chucking. The bark has no strength and can quickly cause your piece to come out of the chuck.

[David E Keller]

Nice looking piece of wood. Looking forward to seeing it finished. It's hard to tell from the photos, but I wonder if you could have turned away the bark on the original tenon and been left with enough solid wood to grasp with a chuck. Nothing wrong with the recess, but it does take away thickness from the center/bottom of the bowl.

Thanks for posting the photos.