Q & As After First Bowl

[Steve Mathews]

I learned a lot while turning my first somewhat successful first bowl. While some of the lessons learned were straight out of the book so to speak others came by just doing it. But a few new questions arose as well. Here are some of them that I hope someone can answer.



It seemed the more the tool was placed away from the rest the more chatter it would create. This would happen whether it was the bowl gouge or scraper. If this was in fact the reason for the chatter is there a rule for how far the tool should be placed from the rest?




I used a face plate initially to work on the back of the bowl and to make a recessed tenon. Then, after putting the piece on the chuck I noticed that I had to go back and true up what was turned before. How did it loose center? Is this the reason why many experienced turners on YouTube, etc. completely finish the back side and bottom of their bowls before working on the inside?




I recall an early Robo Hippy video about staying out of the line of fire while turning bowls. After watching some of his later videos last night I noticed that he seems to have abandoned that practice and stands at the lathe completely different. What is the general consensus about standing in the line of fire while turning bowls?




I was able to get much smoother cuts while practicing spindle techniques using a skew than using a bowl gouge or scraper on a bowl. Is this normal?




It seems there are a number of ways to approach making a bowl; using a faceplate, not using the tailstock, using glued blocks, using a chuck only, etc. How do you approach the process and why?

[Bob Bouis]

1) If the tool chatters, it's too far away. That's that's the rule! Also sharp tools can be used with a light touch and won't chatter. Sharpen your tools as much as you need to to keep them sharp and cutting well (i.e., very often).

2) Any number of reasons. Poor tenon shape (it needs to be at the right angle for your jaws, not too deep, it needs a flat face on the bowl itself to reference off). Could be wood fibers crushed by chuck (more likely with pine). Lots of reasons you might finish the bottom before hollowing, but the biggest one is superior access and difficulty remounting the bowl after it's finished on the inside (need vacuum chuck, cole jaws, or jamb chuck, etc).

3) My take on it is that you shouldn't, if you can help it. But often you can't.

4) It depends on the wood, but generally speaking the skew produces a better surface because of the consistent grain orientation. Also, the cuts on the outside of the bowl are usually better than on the inside.

5) Depends on the wood I start with and what I'm making. Generally I use a faceplate + tailstock, followed by chuck + tailstock. The faceplate has superior holding compared to a screw chuck or spur center. Only remove the tailstock to finish the bottom or for the final hollowing / finishing on the inside, as it adds a lot of stability and safety. Glue blocks are generally only used on thinner blanks to conserve wood.

[John K Jordan]

Some quick comments.

About the chatter: the closer the rest, the sturdier the tool, and the lighter the cuts helps with chatter. No rule for the distance - it depends. Some people use a curved rest that fits well inside the bowl. Some woods are worse that others. Some tool grinds are better than others. Some techniques for cutting, shear scraping, and scraping are far better than others. Experiment.

Grabbing a piece with a chuck will almost always make it a more or less out of alignment. The wood can compress unevenly. It may help to make the recess as close as possible to the closed diameter of the jaws. It also helps to tighten the chuck in the recess or on the tenon while holding the top of the blank exactly in the center with the tailstock. This assumes you have made a center mark - there are several ways to do this.

I usually like to finish sand the outside before reversing then don't worry about minor out of true. Where it matters, I will true up the outside after reversing, usually by shear scraping with a bowl or spindle gouge, sometimes just partway down from the rim is all that's needed. BTW, I don't know what a recessed tenon is.

I always stand clear when turning a rough blank clear or in the rare event I make heavy cuts or if the wood looks the least bit imperfect. After it is rounded and the mass is reduced by hollowing the inside I don't worry about it. Wear the face shield, of course.

If you practice more spindle turning, the tool control you develop will be evident in your face turning as well. Practice light cuts with a very sharp bowl gouge. After I remove a good amount of the wood from the inside of a bowl I make almost every cut a practice finish cut, even if it is a long way from the target thickness. I try to make one continuous, smooth cut from the rim to the center. Do that repeatedly and by the time you make the final finish cut your hands and arms and stance and motion should be well honed. Do that on 20 bowls and you are an expert. But don't abandon the spindle turning!

There ARE a number of ways to turn a bowl and most of them work. The way I do most face turning, bowls, platters, etc: Mount the top in a screw chuck, turn the outside and turn a tenon or recess, reverse and mount in a chuck, turn the inside, reverse if needed and clean up the bottom. If the wood is valuable or limited in size or it is otherwise appropriate for the design, I use a glue block. I haven't used a face plate for bowls for years. Very valuable and perhaps necessary, however, for very large and heavy and especially irregular chunks of wood.

JKJ

[Michael Mills]

Chatter. Here is link to Stuart Batty on Vimeo. He has three on overhang and handle length depending on the tool.'
Some may be a little extreme, like 5" behind for each 1" over but it gets you in the park.
https://vimeo.com/woodturning/videos/sort:alphabetical/format:thumbnail

Out of alignment after swapping. I generally have to re-true the outside a little. The better you can make your recess or tenon the better the alignment. The above link to Stuart also has three on chucks, tenons, and recesses.

I generally stand out of the line of fire on the intial exterior with the rest at about 45* to the bed.
Once reversed in a chuck and with tailstock support I am in the line of fire to re-true but these are light cuts.

Spindle cuts. I normally get better cuts with the skew because I have it razor sharp. Bowl gouges and many times with scrapers they are used off the grinding wheel and not honed.

Initial cuts. It depends on the project/size. For some I just use a drive spur if it is fairly balanced or I want to reposition the item. Occassionally I use a faceplate for very large or iffy items. Most of the time I use my chuck as a "pin chuck" because drilling a 1" hole and is so fast.

[Don Jarvie]

It's hard to avoid the out of alignment going from the faceplate to chuck. Like everyone said you can true up the outside if it's really off but you probably won't notice it once it's done

[Greg Parrish]

On small pieces I've jointed one side and planed the other to get the faces square and then used a drill chuck in the tail stock to cut a 2.125" recess for my small chuck. That gets it pretty well aligned for when I turn it around but I'm finding that the wood can move with just a couple hours drying time too. As I move to bigger pieces I will have to get more creative though.