Help Me Remember?? on Laminated Bowls

[Gilbert Vega]

Sometime within the last week or two, I saw an article/ TV show on turning a laminated bowl from a multi wood laminated board. Anyone see this? Thanks.
Gilbert

[Brian Tymchak]

I just watched the Rough Cut episode last night where Tommy Mac cut rings from a flat maple board to build up a layered bowl blank, and then finish turned it. Would that be the one?

[Dave Mcintire]

This is usually called bowl from a board. Its described in malcolm tibbets book on segmented work. Basically you cut rings from the board. I use a jigsaw. You must cut them at an angle so they can be inverted and glued to a cone shape (rough bowl) and then finish turned. Tibbets cuts the board in half and cuts the rings with a bandsaw and then reglues, but i found you can drill a small hole at the angle you are using and insert the jigsaw blade through the hole and cut the entire ring in one piece that way.

[Brian Tymchak]

This is usually called bowl from a board. Its described in malcolm tibbets book on segmented work. Basically you cut rings from the board. I use a jigsaw. You must cut them at an angle so they can be inverted and glued to a cone shape (rough bowl) and then finish turned. Tibbets cuts the board in half and cuts the rings with a bandsaw and then reglues, but i found you can drill a small hole at the angle you are using and insert the jigsaw blade through the hole and cut the entire ring in one piece that way.

The Rough Cut technique is a bowl-from-a-board technique but is a bit different than the technique that Malcolm writes about in his book. Tommy Mac created a large ~16" bowl from an 8" board by first gluing up 3 large panels from the board. Then he cut rings (no angle cuts) from the panels such that panel 1 yields ring 1,4,7, panel 2 yields rings 2,5,8, panel 3 yields rings 3,6,9. Doing it this way allows the rings to be sized with enough overlap that the angle of the cut on the rings is not critical to make the bowl fit together. Where as the technique in Malcolm's book gets you a conical bowl/vase with minimal waste, the Rough Cut technique can give you a wide, flat piece, albeit with more waste. And it takes out some of the complexity of cutting the rings

[Gilbert Vega]

I saw Rough Cut but that's not what I was thinking of. The one I saw was all cut from a single square using angled cuts. He had a demo of a bowl one the lathe of a plain bowl and other pics of other more complex bowls where the initial square was man noted prior to cutting the rings.

[Grant Wilkinson]

Denny Edwards has couple of movies on his site doing exactly what you describe, Gilbert. Here is one of them

http://www.dennyedwards.com/Movies/files/page1-1009-pop.html

You will find other under "old movies" on his site. You need Quicktime to play them.

[Gilbert Vega]

That's exactly the same technique used in the video I was looking for. Thanks for the links.
Gilbert

[Grant Wilkinson]

You're welcome, Gilbert. Be sure to post your results. If you have any questions, Denny is a great guy and responds quickly.

[Richard Coers]

What's going to keep the expansion and contraction of the bottom from cracking the bowl? He rotates the stock 90 degrees, I assume for strength of the glue joint, but that sets up cross grain construction.

[Grant Wilkinson]

I can't speak for Denny, but I've done several of these and none of cracked; at least not yet. I guess what helps is that the walls of the bowl are only about 1/8 to 1/4" thick, so movement is kept to a minimum. As for the bottom, it is not solid. It, too, is a ring, the centre being a floating "puck" inside a groove. The puck can expand without putting any stress on the glue joint.

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

When creating a “bowl from a board”, whether the board is a glued-up lamination or a solid board, there’s no need to rotate layers 90-degrees. They can be reassembled with the same original orientation or every other layer can be rotated 180-degrees to form a pattern. Consistent grain alignment should be a goal with all segmented work. As such, there’s no wood movement stress on the bottom layer.