Question for the "unconventional" woodworkers

[Chad Guy]

Alright, bear with me on this:

Let's say I start with a 8"x8"x8" wood cube. Is there a way for a woodworker to carve out a hemispherical bowl with a 3" radius into a face of the cube?

Yep, you read right; I can't make it any clearer than that. Would a CNC router work, or a set of custom-made router bits used w/ a plunge router?

Any and all replies are appreciated. Thanks. -Chad

[Lee DeRaud]

CNC router would work, with a little hand cleanup at the end.

But it would be a lot easier to chuck it up in a lathe (glue block on the opposite face) and turn the bowl out.

[Jon Eckels]

Here's a wacky way to do it. Build a jig that would lower the cube onto a table saw blade slowly while rotating the piece in place. I can't be held responsible for hospital bills, but I'd bet it would work.

You could use a cove panel bit and plunge it directly into the surface of the cube. Again.. not responsible for hospital bills.

I'm so curious as to what you're trying to do.

[Don Baer]

Im with lee on this one, chuck it up in the lathe and it'll only take a moment..:D

[Doug Shepard]

I've never seen anything like this, but in theory you'd want to make your router into a pendulum. If you could rig up a frame and swing arms that would suspend your router and allow it to swing you could cut out an arc. You'd have to either rotate the block or be able to rotate the frame around the block. A core-box bit would probably work. The lathe sounds a whole lot easier than going the Rube Goldberg route, but you did mention having a router (but no mention of a lathe). I would think very light passes would be in order and generally handling such a contraption like a Piranha.


BTW - Welcome to SMC

[Dino Makropoulos]

Here's a wacky way to do it. Build a jig that would lower the cube onto a table saw blade slowly while rotating the piece in place. I can't be held responsible for hospital bills, but I'd bet it would work.

You could use a cove panel bit and plunge it directly into the surface of the cube. Again.. not responsible for hospital bills.

I'm so curious as to what you're trying to do.

Jon.
What about if you turn your circular saw into a circle saw?
Same idea upside down.
Make a rotating jig for the saw (lazy-Susan)
and slowly lower the blade.


The first choice is to Lee.
May I say... the easy choice?

[John Shuk]

The lathe is easiest. David Marks did something similar on WOOD WORKS. Making a pendulum jig with the router.
http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/ww_tables/article/0,2049,DIY_14446_3877238,00.html
I'm not sure how well it would work with such a small bowl but it might be an idea to try a prototype.

[Jim Becker]

Waste block and the lathe or if you have a vacuum chuck available, that will hold the workpiece nicely, too. Round-nose scraper would have it done in no-time, especially if you do the hemisphere in the "end grain" face.

[Lee DeRaud]

The lathe is easiest. David Marks did something similar on WOOD WORKS. Making a pendulum jig with the router.Ooh, forgot about that one...pretty trick jig.

Although I think he's got a lathe big enough to swing that slab: would have been fun to watch!:eek: :cool:
I'm not sure how well it would work with such a small bowl but it might be an idea to try a prototype.Probably work ok for the shallow contour Marks used. But for a true hemisphere the bowl would have to be at least as wide as the router is tall to get to the more vertical parts of the sides.

[Chad Guy]

Thanks guys. Some ideas I did not think of. :)