Thread: My Second Winged Bowl - Help Needed

Hi Christos,
I have only made a couple of candle holders in this style, so I am no expert. However, I agree with your assessment that the curvature is too shallow. I think that you could have reduced the thickness of the wings - I made my wings only 3 mm thick. Secondly I would suggest that your blank was not suitable for this turning, I would suggest that it needs to be at least twice as thick and probably a bit longer. This would give you the opportunity to refine your design and achieve a more rounded curvature.

Overall a good first (second ) attempt - stick with it.
Bob

Originally Posted by Christos

This is the second attempt at making a winged bowl. The first one did not turn out and ended up becoming a tiny little bowl, but we shall not talk about that.

Did more research and tried again, thus producing this piece, it was made out of pine.

P1010326.JPG P1010327.JPG P1010328.JPG

This is what I see as wrong with the piece.

The bowl is not centred the shoulder has a very noticeable difference of about 3mm. Start by making sure you piece of wood is square and parallel take your time getting the measurement correct as you have found out it shows(I,ve done it before)
The curve of the wings are not steep enough for my liking. This is only something you can decide on, I would have curved the end down more when cuttinr the underside work from the outside and measure often this will help keep it the same thickness
The lip inside the bowl is too big as I am not making a lid so that needs to be done differently. Make a lid for this one in a contrasting colour then have a go at making another we all had to learn and have made mistakes ourselves I certainly did

I do have some ideas on getting a nicer piece but I really want to here from you guys on what I should be doing. After all if we do not learn from history mistakes we are deemed to repeat it.

One other thing that I found is that this in not sitting flat as it has a very slight rock. Yes I know how to fix this press hard on piece against the jaws next time. Or I will be sanding it on a flat surface that has sandpaper attached. This comes under the first comment I made about measurements and also making sure the wood is set in the chuck correctly also lightly face off the blank once you have it in the lath using a straight edge

Hope some of the above help a little I went a little ambitious with my first attempt

DSCF0222.jpgDSCF0230.jpg

That's a good start!

I greatly enjoy turning 'winged' objects in all sorts of forms... but I almost always have to do some degree of clean-up on the linisher to get it to balance to my satisfaction. Some of my earlier ones I ended up running through a tablesaw first, they were so unbalanced!

You didn't say whether you used sacrificial pieces to 'fill out' the wings - so you can safely turn it as a "segmented" bowl w/out cracking knuckles - or not?

Using sacrificial pieces is a much safer method but as you can't see the bowl profile you really need to be accurate with your calipers to get the wings to a constant, even depth. If you did, then when you separate off the sacrif. pieces and clean up the edges is the best time to "balance out" the bowl.

NOT using sacrificial pieces has the risk of pounding knuckles, finger tips and other asstd. body parts, but it makes it easier to see where the profile needs work... all you have to do is stop the lathe. However, it also has the downsides of being prone to chips/splinters breaking out on the trailing edges when turning, or of "rounding over" the leading and/or trailing edges of the wings when sanding.

Me, I like to use a compromise method... gluing sacrificial strips on each side, maybe a 1/2" to 1" thick. These prevents the tear-out and rounding over, while still giving me a good visual idea of the profile. Once I stop the lathe, of course. (Actually, with a bit o' practice one can see the profile while it's spinning, with appropriate backlighting to enhance the "ghost image.")

Mind you, I have dislocated my LH index finger a couple of times doing things this way; all it takes is a moments inattention and... (I still persevere though, as I personally think it's worth it. More fool me, eh wot? )

Christos you are uncomfortable in doing this you have a fear of "WHAT CAN GO WRONG" its something we all have at various levels is not a bad thing either as it sets our limitations or challenges us to raise the bar.

I thought the NEW lathe would have helped settle you down some I am still in hope.

One way of doing this is cut the timber afterwards
Don't use pine it moves to much
speed is a factor and confidence


No I haven't done this type yet but have a 4 footed one I have shown you out of Jarrah

Take a weekend trip to Tinonee and have Peter Calabria go over it with you or see him at Tend Open day come March not really cheaper as temptation to buy more goodies is there.

Christos
I generally agree with what others have said.From a design point of view,I think it is important to have the top and bottom surfaces of the wing parallel,ie get rid of those little feet.Keep going with them .I have made a few and don't find them easy.
Ted

Firstly I wish to say thank you to the guys that have replied so far. Just to clarify one question that Skew ChiDAMN asked.

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

.....You didn't say whether you used sacrificial pieces to 'fill out' the wings...

This was a rectangular piece. No sacrificial pieces for the wings.

The first attempt was made out of a piece of Merbau or so I have been told it was Merbau. It was a piece that I can not even recall where I got it from. As I had mention it ended up becoming a bowl.

P1010334.JPG P1010332.JPG

It just seemed a bit of a pity to ruin wood on a practice run.

This was the first video that I saw and as you can imagine I thought that I should give it a go.

03-10-11 Turning a Winged Box by Mike Peace (01h24m20s) - YouTube

There are others on youtube just do a search on winged bowl turning. No I have not seen them all.

Christos, when I did mine I cut the timber to the rectangular shape on the table saw and then drew the diagonals to get the exact centre. Then I carefully drilled a hole with the drill press for the ConChuck, which I got from Pops Shed. I then glued on sacrificial timber to make the whole piece balanced using a paper glue joint.

With the timber mounted in the ConChuck I was able to shape the bottom, add a tenon and shape both sides of the wings with ease. I then used an ordinary chuck to hollow out the centre bowl and then reversed chucked it on a donut chuck to remove the tenon.

Finally broke of the extra's at the paper joints and a bit of hand finishing.


Peter.

Hi Christos

Not sure if you have already seen it but Bob Hamilton does a great video series demonstrating turning a winged box.

cheers
WH

try doing sketches as well as it helps the eye, I have a art book and draw shapes.
it's basically a m stretched! and maybe try a speed a touch high if it's a rectangle! and be safe!

Hi christos,
We must have been making the same thing
at the same time the only thing is yours got completed
i was told to start with a block of wood the size of a brick
make sure it is square and even, but then i,am no expert
As you can see
cheers smiife


2014-01-11 14.56.39.jpg 2014-01-11 13.56.27.jpg 2014-01-11 15.17.01.jpg 2014-01-11 15.15.32.jpg

Smiife;
I fixed the photos right side up but they shrank in size.

Ouch!
I take it that you managed to keep your head out of the line-of-fire, Michael, since you were able to post the results.
(Now I'm even more nervous of my first attempt at a winged bowl. I don't think I'll be trying one immediately. First a bit more simple stuff, I think.)

Hi guys,
Sorry not to repy earlier, spent a bit of time at the hospital........
no not for me, another grandchild was born on wednesday
Christos
Thanks for straightening out the photos
Hermit,
Don, t be nervous, It, s funny you just get to know
when things are not right, 9times out of 10 you can
hear something is wrong,
In this case i started with crap wood, although it
was a bought blank and sealed at both ends it still
had a crack so i was aware before i started it was dodgy
just keep out of the line of fire
cheers smiife