It is always fun for any wood turner to turn logs of wood from their own environment into a good rich, looking usable utensils or into various forms of art that easily shows the turner’s skill. Some of those woodturning projects are considered difficult, include turning wood bowls. Successful creation of these bowls requires a lot of attention to details. I usually craft bowls as my hobby, utilizing many different species of trees and grain patterns as I can find.
When undertaking bowl making projects, I usually prefer working with greenwood. Over the years as I have done bowl turning, I have come to learn that green hardwood turns easier and faster than dry wood, making turning much simpler. I have also learned to make thin bowl walls to avoid cracks as the bowls dry. Thin side walls tend to warp as they dry. The trick here is to make the thickness thin enough so as not to crack and thick enough so you will be a able to cut out the warp.
The aim of my project is to preserve the importance of trees. I also seek to bring out the aesthetic values of the different species of trees, utilizing wood that has high character and color that is generally considered less useful for commercial purposes, in every bowl I make.
To make a bowl out of wood, you need to have a stock of wood in your shop. However, if you do not have the material available, you need to visit your local forest (with land owner’s permission) or a firewood pile or any other area in your locality where these pieces of wood can be found. Alternatively, you can cut tree stumps along your walkways and add them to your hoard. To start the process of bowl turning, you need to size the wood, so that it meets your goal and fits the lathe. Next you need to find the center point of your blank. You can use a compass to enable you locate the center of the wood. Then use a chain saw to remove the sharp corners or use a band saw to cut the bowl blank round. Use an faceplate or a scroll chuck to fix it to the lathe and give it a spin to test if it is truly centered.
The lathe can now be switched on and woodturning started; increase lathe speed gradually at the bowl becomes round and balanced. By use of a bowl gouge to round the rough the blank. This will start giving your blank your preferred shape. A sharp gouge will leave the wood with a smooth texture.
Having completed the outer part of the bowl, you can reverse the bowl and start excavating the inside of the bowl. Use the bowl gouge to do this. Size of the tools depends on the size of the project. Larger tools have less vibration. To check the depth of your bowl, use the straight edge across bowl and measure the depth, or you can use bowl calipers. These two measuring techniques can help you know how far you are from your target thickness and depth. After finishing the rough turning you will want to put the bowl in a dry warm place to dry.
Segmented Bowl
I’ve been planning to turn a segmented bowl with using several species of wood glued together to form a pattern as one of your many projects, here are a few tips and hints on doing just that. If you’re serious about your woodworking hobby, then you’ve probably goggled the subject and seen images of all the amazing things.
A Turning Project
If you’ve been planning on experimenting with using several species of wood glued together to form a pattern as one of your many projects, here are a few tips and hints on doing just that. If you’re serious about your woodworking hobby, then you’ve probably Googled the subject and seen images of all of the amazing things that other people who love to craft stuff from wood have made using this particular woodworking method. Some of them are quite amazing and your project can be, too!
Turning A Wooden Mallet
A mallet is one of the small items that virtually every person or family needs. However, not many people realize that they need a mallet until there’s some work that needs to be done and it is required.
