Thread: two part hollowform

G'day This was inspired by a presentation by Brian McEvoy at Turnfest
It is essentially two bowls glued together.
The timber is Camphor laural.The diameter is about 220mm and the height 110mm and the finish is DO.The sequence was as follows.
The end of the blank ,which was to become the top, was mounted on a screw chuck and then trued up around the centre . The centre part of the bottom end was trued up and a sacrificial tennon hotmelt glued on .The tennon was then trued up.
The blank was now parted in two by first cutting in as far as possible with a 3mm parting tool, then a bit further with a 1mm parting tool and finally with a hand saw with the lathe stationary . A dovetail was cut in the exposed face of the top section and then removed from the lathe.
The bottom section was now mounted on the lathe, using the glued on tennon and a dovetail cut in the exposed face. The blank was now reversed onto this dovetail and the outside of the bowl turned .It was then reversed again and the inside hollowd out being carefull to make sure the rim was square and then sanded . The inside was given a coat of Wipe On Poly then set aside.
The top part was was now mounted on the lathe in expansion mode using the dovetail and the outside of the bowl turned.At the "base" a dovetail is cut to reverse the bowl onto. This dovetail needs to be a few mm deeper than the length of the jaws ,The blank was then reversed onto this dovetail so that it is sitting on the shoulder of the jaws rather than the face of the jaws as is normal.The bowl is then hollowed out being carefull not to hit the jaws . Again, it is essential that the rim is square.
I then turned up a plug which fitted neatly in the neck hole.
I then mounted the bottom half back on the lathe and using the plug and the live centre to align everything,glued the two halves together making sure the grain in the two halves was aligned. I wipped the excess glue off the outside then ran the lathe slowly for about 10 minutes to spread the excess glue evenly round the join, as I had found on a previous attempt that leaving the lathe stationary lead to a big glob of glue in one spot where the excess had drained to.
Next day I refined the neck shape and tidyied up round the join since one bowl had come out slightly bigger than the other.
After a final sanding , I put on several coats of DO buffing between coats.
Finaly I removed the hotmelt glued tennon by briefly microwaveing it, then tidied up the base.
Hope you like it
Ted