Bowl from a log
August, 2011
A half log of ash was produced by splitting a whole log with a wedge and sledge hammer.
Half log was cut to size and a 3/8″hole drilled for the wormwood screw
It was mounted on the lathe and the center of balance found by inserting the live center tail stock in the bark and turning slowly to find the best center position. Then it was dismounted, the wormwood screw removed temporarily, and piece of shingle was nailed in the position of the indent created by the live center.
Cut to a round blank on the band saw using a piece of shingle as a constant radius guide.
Here it is half done
and then completed.
The wormwood screw was re-inserted
The bowl blank was mounted by the woodworm screw in the 4 jaw chuck.
I turned it to the desired shape, chiseled off the bark;
Remounted it and sanded the outside by hand running through the grits from 50-80-100-120-150-180-220 and then 3M superfine and microfine sanding pads to a polished surface.
After turning the tenon (which I wish I had spent a little more time on at this point), I
reverse mounted the piece in the 4 jaw chuck and start scooping out the inside (with the new bowl gouge) using the live center tail stock to stabilize it little.
That turned out to be a mistake,
because I got a catch on the resulting tenon and had to spend some time cleaning that up.
So I removed the tail stock and turned off the tenon inside and here is the final result.
(At this point I sanded the inside running through same the grits as above.)
I reverse mounted the bowl on the jam chuck (using green Scotchbrite for friction to hold it.)
(You can see the reflection in the polished surface in this photo; very smooth.)
I made an indent and then turned off the tenon with a skew chisel.
While turning off the tenon, as it got very small, I got a catch and the bowl went flying, hitting the tool rest on the way across the shop.
I thought for sure the bowl was going to crack in half , but it didn’t. And there were no chips out of the rim and only two little marks on the outside. I used a chisel and 50 grit sandpaper to clean up the inside of the bottom. You can’t quite see the catch (gouge) in photo of the bottom.
Nice grain and smooth finish but not as smooth as the beech bowl I did earlier since ash is open grained, like red oak. I think it will need some kind of finish.
I don’t like the Beeswax+linseed oil mix – too smelly.
Maybe orange oil, which I have lying around.
I’ve tried olive oil and candle wax on one piece.
Finally … I’ve got a decent real sized bowl under my belt. This one is 8″ in diameter.