Thread: Natural edged knuckle killer

Nice natural eadge bowl , i like the 2 tone in side , what timber is it ?
soory cant give advice on knuckel skinning , i allways get hit by the chuck
call me a wood scruge dont want to waste any timber and end up with my fingers mm's away from chuck :mad: havent turned a bowl yet ,

SawDustSniffer - thanks - it's grevillia robusta AKA silky oak.

Originally Posted by Caveman

G'day all,
Couple of quick questions regarding my first attempt at a natural edged bowl. (Have attached a couple of pictures of the WIP).

1. What's the best (i.e. easiest and less painful) method of sanding such a bowl with losing bits off ones knuckles and donating some blood to the workshop floor? (Have ended up sanding the 'wings' inside out and out with the lathe stationary using a drill, arbor etc...and working through the grits - turned out OK).

2. What is the easiest / best method of reversing the bowl to finish off the bottom. (Have got a compression / doughnut chuck, not much help with this kind of bowl).
My thought was to place it between centres and reduce the chuck tenon to a 'pip', cut off and hand sand. Any other way?

TIA.

Caveman what you are doing for sanding is probably the safest. But some sandpaper across the bottom of a rubber thong (or strip of thick rubber if somebody else's thongs are not available ) with the lathe on lowest speed is also an option.

The rotary sanders, Neil now distributes them, are also good and they keep you pinkies away from the action:eek: .

As far as the reverse turning, make up a wooden chuck that fits into the headstock and has the contour of the inside of the bowl - some router cloth is handy to keep contact without scratching. Hold the tenon between centres and reduce as you have suggested.

Thanks John - yep, was thinking along those lines for finishing up the bottom.
Will give that a go.

IMHO a rotary sander in a battery drill, with the lathe stopped, is the best way to keep yer knuckles at the tops of yer fingers.

The thong idea works, but tends to round over the leading edge. This is OK if you have a reverse on your lathe, so you can sand it the other way, making both the leading and trailing edges look the same.

As for finishing the foot... good luck! This is one of the few instances where I advocate using a mortise instead of a spigot for mounting, so you can finish off the foot before reverse chucking for hollowing. (see my example in this thread.)

With natural edge bowls I mount the blank on a screw chuck on the bark side. Then I turn the bottom and shape the back. On a second small face plate I screw a waste block. This block is turned with a shallow recess, so that it is the same size as the bowl base. The bowl bottom is finished, sanded, sealed and is then glued to the waste block (no paper). If this is done without removing either face plate, and glued using the lathe as a glue press, there will be no problem with eccentricity. Sanding is done with the lathe stationary and a piece of polystyrene packing used for a sanding block. Work down through the sandpaper grades and it doesn't take long at all to finish.
Jim

Thanks Skew & Jim for the info / ideas.
I think I'll try those methods for future ones - save a bit of hassle I reckon!

as for finishing the foot l use a chisel to remove the pip then put the jacobs chuck in the head with the 50mm sandingpad and use this to sand the base ive found that you have a lot more control this way.

All good ideas. I do the same as Rodent on the pieces the will not work in my Donut Chuck. My latest chuck for turning bases or feet is a vacuum chuck (but it is not completed just yet).
Your natural edged bowl is very well done!!

Thanks guy's for all the input.
Will take off the foot hopefully today and see how it turns out.