How do I reduce the thickness a half inch?

[Wade Lippman]

I made this 10" bowl/dish to hold an iced tea pitcher. It is wormy red oak; a total of 2.5" thick. The sides are 1.5" high and about 0.3" thick.
A little subtraction gives the base as 1" thick. I want to reduce it to 0.5".
I could run it through the drum sander, but that will take forever. I thought about setting a 1/2" router bit 1/2" up on the router table and running it through randomly a dozen times; I figure that will reduce the amount of wood to be sanded by half. Safe? Reasonable?

Any other ideas?

322520

[Roy Harding]

Band saw. (Use a fence that is higher than the diameter of the piece).

[Frederick Skelly]

Band saw. (Use a fence that is higher than the diameter of the piece).

+1. My thought exactly. Then maybe run it through your sander to smooth the cut side to your liking.

[Wade Lippman]

I hadn't thought of a bandsaw... I could glue a block to it to keep it upright and have something to hold onto.

[Roy Harding]

You don't need to get complicated. Set the fence (with an attached tall "false fence" if needed) the appropriate distance from the blade. Set the piece with the hollowed out side against the fence. Use a tall feather board against the solid side of the piece (I have some magnetic ones I use - the brand name escapes me - but if you don't have any, take the time to make some shopmade ones that fit the mitre slot on your bandsaw - you'll use them a lot). Use a push stick to push/roll the piece through the blade. You're done.

[Joe A Faulkner]

+1 on attaching to a block or building some type of sled or carriage. You start pushing a cylinder through a bandsaw and it may start to roll as round objects are apt to do and cause some tension on the blade, and before you know it, you get kick back, a jammed thumb or worse, and a tweaked saw blade. At least this is what happened to a guy I know who did some cross cuts of 15" logs on a bandsaw.

[Doug Garson]

I assume you made it on a lathe, why not use the lathe? If not how about making a router planer jig for your router.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anu_F2I-_is

[John TenEyck]

I'd do it with a dado blade. If you have a RAS you could take 1/2" off the entire bottom. If you use a TS, just leave a couple of uncut sections then turn it 90 degrees and remove most of those sections, leaving just 4 nubs. You can pare them off with a chisel or flush cut saw and then finish sand on the drum sander.

John

[Bob Michaels]

+1 on attaching to a block or building some type of sled or carriage. You start pushing a cylinder through a bandsaw and it may start to roll as round objects are apt to do and cause some tension on the blade, and before you know it, you get kick back, a jammed thumb or worse, and a tweaked saw blade. At least this is what happened to a guy I know who did some cross cuts of 15" logs on a bandsaw.


Good advice regarding the warning about pushing a cylinder through a bandsaw. Get ready for flying saucers.

[glenn bradley]

I hadn't thought of a bandsaw... I could glue a block to it to keep it upright and have something to hold onto.

Yes, the bandsaw suggestions should have included that round objects like to do strange things depending on material, blade tooth count, you appreciation of your fingers, etc. A carrier with a wedge at the leading edge and some double stick tape could be your friend.

[Mike Schuch]

Do you have access to a jointer 10" or wider? As suggested a Radial arm saw is perfect for this. For a table saw clamp a 1/2" board on the far side of the blade to support the already cut portion and make sure to set the blade height to the height of the board. A router with a 1/2" board covering 1/2 of the base plate allows you to support the router on the cut and uncut side. You might be able to use 6" jointer, run half the bowel over the jointer then turn it around and run the other half over (Ihave never tried this myself but it might work). How about a 12" planer with a planer sled?

[terry mccammon]

Make jam chuck that fits the opening and turn the bottom down.

[Wade Lippman]

A lot of good suggestions. Thanks.
A 10" jointer would have been perfect, or a dado in a RAS; but unfortunately I have neither.
If I had 5 to do, the jam chuck, router planer jig, or bandsaw fixture would have worked. (though just free hand through the bandsaw was too risky)
But in the end I used the drum sander. It took about 10 minutes to remove 5/8".