Thread: 1st Bowl WIP

Nothing wrong with that feature as it adds to the artistic appearance. Some nice colours in there. Looking forward to seeing the finished article.

George, it's not clear from your pics how you held the work. On the small spigot or the larger one? Rough rule of thumb is that the spigot should be 1/3 rd the diameter of the platter / bowl for safety reasons. I hope this helps.

Jeff, the smaller spigot is where it was chucked. Overall diameter of bowl about 300mm. The larger "spigot" is actually my attempt at a foot but I made it too deep and this will have to be reshaped when I finish off the bottom.

George,

That is a very nice shape and a wonderful figure in the timber.

As this is your first bowl, a few considerations:

You will be making what is known as an interrupted cut. Use a very sharp tool and take careful light cuts.

It would help to put 2 - 3 wraps of tape around the rim so that if you have a catch in the interrupted cut it is not as likely split in half and hit you in the face. Wear a face shield.

Leave the tape on and finish cutting everything you can reach, sand, and put on the first coat of finish. Remove the tape, turn at around 600 - 800 rpm and carefully cut, sand, and finish the rim blending into what is done.

With the small spigot, if you have a catch the bowl is likely to come out of the chuck. If a larger set of jaws or a larger chuck is available, you could put the rim of the bowl against a faceplate, or a piece of plywood attached to a faceplate and trued, run the tail center snugly up to the center mark on the spigot and use that to hold the bowl in place.

Turn off most of the small spigot and make a larger one, remove bowl and saw, chisel, or sand off the nub, put in chuck and proceed. The larger spigot can be tidied up after the bowl is finished and be the foot.

Another alternative would be to set this one aside and let it dry while you get some experience with a solid bowl or bowls. It would be a shame to lose this one.

Below is my first interrupted cut bowl made from a rock hard dry locust stump. It came out of the lathe three times before I was finished. The first catch was bad enough to break two and tear out two #10 wood screws, and fling the bowl 7 meters into the yard.

I persisted and the bowl quickly sold for $95.

Be careful and wear a face shield. That is a nice bowl.

Finished this off last night. It has warped a bit through drying and it was hard to get a good finish without tear out. Finish is EEE and Shellawax.
Whilst I'm happy for a first bowl it as a lot of defects. I'll put this one away and see how I go. It will be interesting to compare this one with another say a year from now.

QUOTE=george mavridis;1803214]Finished this off last night. It has warped a bit through drying and it was hard to get a good finish without tear out. Finish is EEE and Shellawax.
Whilst I'm happy for a first bowl it as a lot of defects. I'll put this one away and see how I go. It will be interesting to compare this one with another say a year from now.[/QUOTE]

Hi george,
Looking good mate well done, 1st bowl mmmmmm
Can, t wait to see the second one
Always like working with camphour, and like the smell
in the shed

George,

Very nice bowl. Put a date on it. After a year or two and many bowls you will wonder when you made it.

All my bowls for sale I date by bowl number and last two digits of the year. First bowl in 2014 would be 114, fifteenth would be 1514. I also sign them and put timber if known.

I use a code so that if one of my bowls is in a shop a year later, the prospective buyer does not see a last years date and wonder what is wrong with a perfectly good bowl.

You learn quickly, as the bowl survived losing a piece and being finished with an interrupted cut.

Very good first attempt.

Jim

That is a very nice first bowl.
Cheers Frank

George, pretty good feat all round. You and your instructor/mentor should be pleased. They must be pretty good guiding you through to achieve that quality on your first bowl.

Looks like a pretty good result for a first bowl. Always good to have someone watch over your shoulder when first starting out.