Natural Edge Bowl help

[Prashun Patel]

I'm having trouble getting a consistent lip when turning natural edge bowls. The high edges get thin first. If I try to thin the walls to make the low edges thin, the high edges turn away. You can see how I ruined an edge here in the upper left part of the pic.

I'm sure this is a basic question; what am I missing? Do I have to make the walls thinner deeper inside the bowl?

[Baxter Smith]

Prashawn, your angle of cut on the inside needs to match the angle of the cut on the outside as you go down in. If it is not as steep, (in your case) the walls will get thicker/bark edge will be thicker as you get towards the center. Hope that explains it.

[patrick michael stein]

hi prashun,
in order to get both high and low sides even you do a push cut.enter the tool like normal but instead of sweeping to the center you must push sraight back passed the high side then sweep towards the center.bill grumbines vidoe would help .




have fun
patrick

[Ken Whitney]

Patrick's comment is right on.

The low wing width is controlled by the depth of the bowl. As you cut deeper the low wing thins. If you just cut on the high wing you get the thinning you describe.

[Prashun Patel]

I get it now. I watched Grumbine again and now it all makes sense.

Wow, I love turning this green wood. It's hard not to dig in, though...

[Steve Schlumpf]

Prashun - in addition to the comments already made - remember that you will have more control on the wall thickness if you hollow the bowl in steps. Take the wall down to the thickness you want but only go 1" deep. Then repeat for the next inch. This keeps the support in the area you are turning and will help keep the bowl from flexing away from the gouge when it starts to get thin.

Just make sure that once you are done with a section - you do not go back to it. The support will have been turned away at that point and the wall will flex - resulting in a varying thickness.

Have fun with it!

[Thom Sturgill]

To add to Steve's comment, cut down the inch along the side, leaving the center in place until you finish the side cut to thickness, the remove the center and then cut the next 1" along the side. Also, apply sealer and CA glue to the bark edge. First on the outside before turning the inside, then on the inside as you turn to thickness. the sealer will help prevent the CA glue from penetrating too deep and staining lighter woods like maple.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I pretty basically do what Steve and Thom said. I do it sections at a time. Depending on how big I may take it down to finish in 3 to 5 sections.

[Don Geiger]

The wall thicknees needs to be consistent. Use your favorite caliper and be very critical about variations as you are measuring. Don't use your fingers!

The techniques I learned this from David Ellsworth is:
Use a 3/16" diameter steel rod bent into a circle and set the gap between the tips slight wider than the desired wall thickness. Set gauge on to top edge of your tool rest and using one hand (so you don't chnage the gap) slide it down the wall of the vessel. When it tightens up, the wall is too thick. It is a simple, accurate and inexpensive way to check your wall thicknesses.

I use this on all my open forms and hollow forms.

Tip: round the ends of the rod and sand them so they don't scratch up the wood.

Don Geiger