First time the wood ever spoke to me

[Brian Brown]

Maybe I'm finally learning the language. I turned a natural edge bowl this weekend in a Russian Olive burl. I even thought ahead to turn, detail and sand the bottom before I reverse mounted and did the outside walls and inside. Somehow I had a tool catch (I never even felt it) and tore out a small chunk from the bottom outside edge. Now I have to reverse mount the bowl and redo the bottom. The question is how do I mount it? Because of the uneven top, I can't mount it with cole jaws. I thought about using a doughnut chuck, but how do I get the bowl mounted exactly on center as before, so that the re-turned bottom looks good. This one worked so well, that I don't want to ruin it. Any good suggestions for re-mounting? I need some detailed instructions, and/or pictures if available. Sorry the pictures are so crude, I was hurrying.

[Bruce Pennell]

Brain maybe someone with more experience can chime in here. I did see a set up that should work for you. It was in a magazine the other day. Face plate screwed to scrap of MDF or ply or what ever, than a piece of 3" - 5" pvc pipe about 3" long piece glued on to that. Rubber ball sized to your bowl 5 or 6" ball glued to that. Put your bowl over that and bring up your tail stock to hold it.
Hope you can understand these bad instructions.....Bruce
You could just turn a scrap piece round, cover in foam, and then the tailstock thing.

[Nathan Hawkes]

Nice work on the burl! I like the PVC suggestion. I've done something similar with a drill chuck in the headstock and a large circular sanding pad, with shelf/toolbox liner as a cushioning pad, and a live center support on the tailstock. From experience, you have to be careful and take light cuts, and keep the tailstock pressure up, otherwise the bowl will spin on the support, and will mar the surface of the bowl.

[Bob Hallowell]

Brian,
Just chuck up a scarp peice of wood 3" or so, round of the end alittle and put some kind of pad on it. Turn it round and bring up your tail stock. You can turn off you tennon down to next to nothing. I used to do that all the time before I built my vacuum chuck.

Bob

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Brian...I use a couple of thicknesses of 2" styrofoam insulation. I put it on the base of my donut chuck and turn it to a flat topped cone. I use double-sided tape...tape one piece to the base of the donut chuck...then more double-sided tape and secure a 2nd piece to the first. You can add as many layers as necessary to turn a flat topped cone long enough to hold the edges of the NE off the base of the donut chuck. I then loosely secure the NE on the donut chuck and bring my tailstock up. Use the tailstock to center the NE on the donut chuck before securing the NE in the donut chuck. When I get done, I use a skew and "pop" the styrofoam cone off the donut chuck base. I can often reuse it several times before the bottom of the cone gets messed up by repeated removals from the double sided tap.

[Terry Quiram]

Brian

Now would be the perfect opportunity to get that vaccum chuck you have always wanted.:D

Terry

[Jim Becker]

A David Ellsworth "jam chuck" arrangement between centers is the way to go. Leave your chuck on the spindle and put a piece of thick carpet padding on it. Place the turning reversed over that and bring up your tailstock. "Play" with it, manually rotating until you have it centered and use just enough pressure on the tail stock to keep things secure but not enough to "crush" the piece. Re-turn what you need to using careful shearing cuts and then blend with sand paper. This technique can be used to reverse almost anything for either initial finishing of the bottom or touch-ups as you need to do.

BTW, that's a really lovely piece. Nice work!

[Bill Kesler]

I was at a demonstration the other day and he made a piece about 6" long, 3" around and domed on one end. The other end fit in the chuck. He then put a piece of foam over the dome and placed the bowl on it bringing the tail stock up and finding center. He was then able to turn the bottom to just a small nub which he then trimmed off with a chisel.

[robert hainstock]

What others have described here is the way Grumbine shows in his video. I have tried it and it works great. That is a nasty tearout. Good luck on the return.:eek::):)
Bob

[curtis rosche]

thats awsome, yepp know what you mean about the talking wood. some peices just make you pay attention to every detail with out even thinking about it, that apple burl did it for me.

as for that little bit of tear out. heres what i did on a peice,

1 first finish your bowl, every thing that you normaly do on the lathe.
2 then after you have that done get a peron to help "catch" your bowl.
take the parting tool and carefully part that off, so that its either even with the bottom, or so that the chuck is still holing it a little bit.
3 part it how you like but the tool should be so that it will cut through the wood and then into the chuck jaws.
4 heres where the catcher comes in. they hold the bowl while you part, have them hold the bowl tight so that right before the tool goes the whole way through the wood, it torques off, leaving a thin ring on the chuck. the just clean the bottom of the bowl with a chisel.

just be very careful when you are parting, it they dont hold the wood tight enough you will have to go the whole way through the wood and run the risk of catching the chuck.

[Glenn Hodges]

It looks as if when it spoke you listened, this is an amazingly beautiful piece. Amen to what Curtis said, but if you do not have a catcher just stop in plenty of time and saw off the bottom. I use up to 40 grit to start finishing the bottom and stay away from the edge. Works for me.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Brian I got some longer screws for my donut chuck. I then got a piece of 3" PVC and put a mouse pad over the end. I made the PVC long enough the edges of the bowl wouldn't hit. I also have a piece with a MT2 taper on it that my chuck screws onto. I put that with the chuck screwed on and it will mount the bowl dead center into your donut chuck.

[David Newson]

Brian - Its a nice piece of turning well done, its a shame about the catch but all is not lost to remount it just use the chuck with a piece of router mat folded over several times between it and the inner bowl and bring the tail centre up, what I have done is use the tool rest for guidance to get it running central first before stating lathe,and use a sharp gouge and do just light cuts and about 500 - 600 rpm, hope it works out ok.

[Brian Brown]

what I have done is use the tool rest for guidance to get it running central first before stating lathe,and use a sharp gouge and do just light cuts and about 500 - 600 rpm, hope it works out ok.

What is the easiest way to find the center of a circle so I can get the tail stock centered exactly?

[Nathan Hawkes]

There are a few center finding devices on the market that all revolve around the same idea: concentric rings around a central point. With a compass or dividers, you want to clearly mark the center first, then draw a series of concentric rings using the same center, with the rings maybe 1/16" to 1/8" apart----with a compass it should be easy to just start small, say 1" radius, and increase by 1/16" each ring, without lifting the point. If you don't have any clear acrylic, you can achieve the same thing with some notebook paper, with a light shining through the paper from the bottom. You should be able to use a needle or point and mark the center by lining up the closest size ring with the bottom of the bowl.