1st bowl

[Charles Bouchelle]

Well I managed to get my 1st of many bowls done tonight.Rather simple in form,but a challange for this "newbie". It is Curly Maple 4.5 inches and 2.5 inches deep.I had some troubles working on the inside walls,how do you folks stand to work the inside walls? I've got another turning club meeting next week and the questions are building in my head after doing this bowl.

[David E Keller]

Pretty wood and a great first bowl.

I stand with a fairly wide base and lean over the ways of the lathe... If your lathe allows, you can slide the headstock down and stand at the foot of the lathe.

[Roland Martin]

Nice wood & nice bowl. A good first bowl Charles. Isn't turning great?

[Eric Kosanovich]

Vary nice!!!

[Baxter Smith]

The questions will keep coming for quite a while! Have fun turning and coming up with more!:)

[John Keeton]

Nice bowl, and some beautiful maple!! In my vast experience of the last couple of months, or so,:D;) I have found that standing on the back side of the lathe, and sitting on my lathe stand works in some situations - or at least the couple of times I did it!!

[Steve Mawson]

You are off to a great start. Very nice piece of wood and you made it look good. I do believe that questions will never stop as long as the lathe turns. Experience answers a lot of them but there are always more. Keep up the good work.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Nice looking bowl Charles! Really like the wood! Make sure you sign and date it - so a year from now you can check out how much you have progressed!

Turning club meetings are a great source of information - so are all the folks here on the Creek. If you have questions - ask! It's why we are here.

[Jon Lanier]

Great first bowl :)

Now you are going to get addicted and fall into the vortex!!!!!

[Charles Bouchelle]

Thanks for all the kind words.This forim has given me soo much useful information,its great.As far as falling into the VORTEX........too late I'm there now.

[Rob Robinson VT]

To paraphrase a friend who teaches sculpture:

"You've uncovered the beautiful bowl that was hiding in that piece of wood."

[Bernie Weishapl]

That is a good looking bowl. I agree to sign it and date it for future comparison.

[steven carter]

Charles,

Very nice looking first bowl. It is very common for everyone who has made their first bowl to make the walls of the bowl very vertical, and the bottom flat. This doesn't leave much room for the transition from the vertical walls and the flat bottom. There is certainly nothing wrong with this shape of bowl, but I think it is actually harder to turn than a bowl with a more traditional shape. It might help if you took a look at a mixing bowl from the kitchen and look at the outside profile. When making a bowl of this shape, if you apply the shape of the outside to the inside, it is easier IMO to work on the inside walls. I hope this helps, keep turning and playing with different shapes.

Steve

[Tony De Masi]

Real nice looking bowl. I really like the shape of that one. and the wood well that's just georgous.

Tony

[Bill Bolen]

Very nice.... sure beats the heck out of my first one...Bill..

[Tom Steyer]

Charles- this is a nice looking bowl and the curly maple is beautiful. Keep working - you have a great start.

With this type of shape, it is really difficult to make the transition from the relatively flat bottom to the nearly vertical sides. Keeping a smooth transition is difficult because you have such a small amount of space to go from the vertical plane to the horizontal plane - so it is easy to get an abrupt "corner" as you have in this bowl.

As others have suggested, a shape such as this is more difficult to turn, and you will have an easier time being consistent if you master your techniques turning a more traditional bowl shape.

Looks like you could benefit from some power sanding in the bottom to reduce the tool marks - you could probably still do this with vacuum chucking or possibly a doughnut chuck if you want to.