Routing bowls in to wood

[Glenn Pearston]

I am wanting to make a Mancala board for a friend and am looking for ideas on how to make the bowls (cups) in the wood. I have attached a picture of a retail Mancala board to show what I am talking about.

I could make a jig that holds the router on an elliptical path to create the curved bottom pockets using a bowl bit but I am wondering if anyone has any other ideas.

Thanks for any ideas or suggestions.

Glenn

[James Kuhn]

I would probably try buying a cheap drill press rosette cutter with the intention of grinding my own knife:

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=3656

[John Lucas]

I could make a jig that holds the router on an elliptical path to create the curved bottom pockets using a bowl bit but I am wondering if anyone has any other ideas.




That's how I would do it. I don't know about the elliptical jig you are considering. I think I would just use 1/2 mdf and make a same size hole and use a collar on the router and the bowl bit. Of coarse, you would have to make larger holes in template to allow for collar size. Once you find that out, I would use forstener bits and make two holes and combine then with jigsaw and files.

[Gary McKown]

A year or so ago, Mark Marzluf created a gimballed router mount that dug circular bowl-shaped depressions, so a jig certainly is possible. I don't know whether threads showing Mark's gadget still are archived, and the last I heard he has left woodworking completely.

As a simpler idea, I think I would try using one of those cove-molding router bits of the correct size - in the drill press running at top speed (sort of like a rosette cutter). If someone makes those in a 3-wing or 4-wing version, that would work better.

[Keith Beck]

I made one out of Bloodwood a while back. I first made a template using a hole saw in the drill press, then I attached the template to my board and routed out the recesses with a bowl and tray bit w/a bearing. Pretty easy, but the Bloodwood probably wasn't the best choice. That's some tough stuff!

Keith

[Jamie Buxton]

If you have a plunge router, a horizontal crown molding bit would do the trick.

http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/bit_molding2.html#crown_molding_anchor

I've even used one to plunge shallow depressions.

[Glenn Pearston]

Thanks everyone - this helps.

Glenn