Blackheart Sassafras Candle bowl

[bassmansimon]

Here is the second candle bowl I have made. First one here (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f8/candle-bowl-158912/).
This one is a piece of blackheart sassafras with a lot of interesting grain lines in it. I am really pleased with the results. Proper measuring of the angles meant that I was able to get all the candle holes lined up.

Used my new negative rake scraper, then sanded to 400, finish with EEE and then polished with Shellawax Cream.

Critique and comments very welcome.

Simon.

[turnerted]

Looks good.An interesting design.
Ted

[chuck1]

very nice! did you turn or drill the holes for candles?

[bassmansimon]

very nice! did you turn or drill the holes for candles?

Drilled. I used a compass to mark a circle from the centre of the blank - that became the centre line for the candle holes. Then I marked out angles so that they were the same distance from each other, and made a small hole with a centre punch on the marked line.

Then drilled out the holes with a 38mm forstner bit in a power drill. A drill press and vice would be recommended but I don't have either so just held it by hand.

Then onto the lathe using a woodworm chuck screw, and simply turn like a normal bowl, but constantly stopping and putting a candle in the holes to check the bowl shape. Sanding and polishing is a bit tricky but I'm sure those that do natural edge bowls would encounter this a lot

[Tim the Timber Turner]

You could draw a circle while on the lathe and, if you have indexing on your lathe, use this to divide the circle into 3.
Centre pop and drill a 2mm hole to mark the positions.
Then you can sand before drilling the big holes.

I personally don't like the change of direction near the top.

A smooth flowing line from base to rim is more to my taste.

A good idea well worth exploring.

Cheers

Tim:)

[bassmansimon]

Thanks Tim. The only potential issue I could see witg this is that to sand the top of the job, essentially you would need to do tge whole bowl and foot or recess first and then drill the holes at the end. This means that the base is smaller than at the start of the project, and more susceptible to tipping over when drilling with the forstner bit.

A really fun and quick project though, and costs very little, given the small size of timber. Thanks for the tip about the shape.

Simon

[Tim the Timber Turner]

Simon

A couple of bits of chipboard or MDF glued/screwed together.

Cut/turn a hole for the bowl to sit in while drilling.

This would be reusable and you could then use a smaller foot which would give you more design opportunities.

Cheers

Tim:)

[artme]

Nighswun Simon!!!!:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

Timber looks a lot like camphor.