Thread: Make a bowl without a scroll chuck.

There is often a question on the board about chucks and which one to buy. Scroll chucks certainly have a place in a wood turners kit, but they are not always necessary. This afternoon I made a shallow bowl from a piece of camphor laurel, left over from another job. If you look carefully it is not one piece but is in fact laminated. That means glue was used.
The blank was mounted on a face plate with screws inserted into what will be the top or inside of the bowl.
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Then the back of the bowl is turned to shape.

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In the foreground of the second photo you can see what is a waste block. It has been turned so that the "rim" is identical to the base of the bowl, so that the bowl will be centered, when the two are glued together. The lathe was used as a press. In this case I have used two face plates, but the face plate could have been removed from the bowl and the waste block mounted on that, then glued.

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Another method is to glue the waste block to the back of the bowl while it is still attached to the lathe and turn a shallow recess in the waste block to fit the face plate. The only problem here is that you will need to wait until the glue has set, the primary reason for the use chucks.
Now the bowl is turned around and the inside completed. At this point I cut the bowl off with a hand saw. I did, once, use a parting tool. That end of that project was less than satisfactory. .

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The bowl has been cut from the lathe. The bottom can be cleaned up on a sander or dressed off with a hand plane and sanded as required. At this stage the bowl can be declared finished. And not a scroll chuck in site. Using this system I can design the bowl to suit me, and not be dictated to by a chuck manufacturer.

I want to work on the bottom so it will be mounted in the lathe using a face plate and a disc of plywood. That will be in the morning, so there is more to the story tomorrow.

Jim