Brown Paper Bags

[Brent Dorner]

Hey Guys and Gals,

I have watched people in the past use brown paper bags for gluing between bowls and such to a wooden "face plate" and then using that between centers or in a chuck. Basically providing enough strength to hold the piece but easy to pry apart down the road. Wondering has anyone used this method, how does it work and would it be better to just glue the bowl blank to the wooden face plate without the paper and part it with a chisel.

Thanks,
Brent

[Marty Eargle]

I've not tried it with paper bags but I did experiment once with thin tracing paper. The way I see it, I don't see any point in sacrificing even the smallest bit of safety in doing this. I much better option is to just have a thin parting tool. I have one that is 1/8th of an inch wide and works like a champ. No need to worry about losing any wood.

[Wally Dickerman]

Using paper between a waste block and a blank used to be done a lot. The idea was to weaken the joint to make for easy removal. I don't think that many turners do that anymore. I've used waste blocks a lot and I want a strong joint. I and most others just part the waste block off along the glue line with a parting tool.

[Dan Hintz]

You can sand off the fibers of a paper bag... a little more work to sand down the huge gouge/dent left by a chisel separating two pieces.

[Dennis Ford]

I have done this before but rarely use the technique any more. It works OK if you have a large glue surface area but you still have to reverse the piece to dress up the bottom so very little time is saved in exchange for the risk of the paper coming apart at a bad time.

[Scott Hackler]

I have done a few experiments like this and regular ole newspaper will work just fine, for separating inverted turnings, BUT.....I wouldn't suggest gluing paper in between a bowl blank and a glue block. There are a lot of forces on a glue block and I would want a super solid bond. Besides, when you flip the bowl around to finish the bottom, the glue block can easily be turned off.

[Brent Dorner]

Thanks for all the replies, it was helpful.

[Carl Civitella]

​When i first started turning, just after dirt was discovered. Thats the way it was done. That was before all the new glues they have out now. I never used anything but brown paper bag. I would not try any other paper though.. Carl

[Bernie Weishapl]

An old turning friend of mine used grocery bags to glue up but I just glue them direct and part of at the glue line.