Where is the bottom of the bowl?

[Harvey Ghesser]

I've been wanting to post this for a while since this is more of a gloat for me than anything else....considering how many funnels I made!

No More funnels!!

This is Bill Grumbine's Bottom Line Gauge and it works like a charm.:D:D

[David E Keller]

That's an interesting little gadget, but it places the blame for your next funnel squarely on your shoulders!:eek::D

Seriously, it looks very well made and certainly takes the guess work out of finding the bottom.

[Harvey Ghesser]

D,

I'm so good at not making funnels...that I've decided to learn how to make bowls!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great idea Harvey. Definitely will make it easier to find the bottom.

[Harvey Ghesser]

Thanks, Bernie!

And the my bowl bottoms always come out perfect....not too thick, and not too thin.

The fear of going through the bottom is gone for me. What a relief!

[Donny Lawson]

I made a simple one like Bill's out of dowels and it works great. Maybe I can get back to turning by the end of Nov."I HOPE"
Donny

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I've been wanting to post this for a while since this is more of a gloat for me than anything else....considering how many funnels I made!

No More funnels!!

This is Bill Grumbine's Bottom Line Gauge and it works like a charm.:D:D

Do you keep turning till you see the red dot :confused: :rolleyes: :eek: :p

[Alan Zenreich]

I picked one of those up from Bill when my bride and I took a one day course with him. There are two sizes of jig... one for smaller lathes and a version for 12" and larger swings.

The jig is nicely made. It does not come with a laser. It comes with a second thin rod that is mounted vertically... and comes to a pont. A hole is drilled for a laser and he'll give you the part number for it and the supplier... I think the laser is about $20.

Either approach works well... but I'm a laser kind of guy <vbg>

[Josh Bowman]

Do you keep turning till you see the red dot :confused: :rolleyes: :eek: :p
Leo, I still laughing!!!:rolleyes:

[Steve Schlumpf]

Harvey - congrats on your new laser thickness gauge! Looks like it will work great!

[Bob Wolfe]

That thing is enormous!! Looks like you could find the bottom of a 48" bowl with it. I made one similar (though much smaller) except instead of a base I made wings that sit on the bowl rim and the center post slides to the bottom of the inside of the bowl. Nothing else moves. It works for me to approximate where the bottom is, but yours would probably be more precise.

For the laser I used a $5 saw guide from HF so it is a line laser instead of a dot.

[Alan Zenreich]

The advantage of the rig sitting on the lathe bed instead of against the bowl rim is that it's more convenient/repeatable with natural edge or variable edged bowls.

[Don Geiger]

I built my first laser depth finder about 10 years ago out of scrap copper tubing I found under my shed. It has a nice patina coloration. I soldered the joints and it works very well. Each time I show this at one of my demos the cameras start flashing and people are scribbling notes.

I now have three different ones, one for each of the three lathes in my shop. The small amount of Copper pipe necessary to build one is cheap and the lasers can be a low as about $10.


Don Geiger