Turning a Lidded Bowl
A pictorial article by Bob Hamilton
An internet
friend had most generously sent me a turning blank of 8/4 East Indian Rosewood
that was about 5”x5” square. I wanted
to make something special with this most special piece of wood. After thinking about it for a while, I
decided to make a lidded bowl. When I
posted pictures of the final bowl on the info exchange forum at the Woodworker's
Website Association a few members asked me to show how
I did it. The pictures in this article
are not the original bowl, but one I made later from walnut and maple.
Photo #1: Finding centre Photo #2: Mounting hole
I started out
with a piece of 8/4 walnut about 6”x6”.
I used a marking gauge to lay out the centre and made a starting hole
with an awl. Then I bored a chucking
recess about ˝” deep using a 1” forstner bit.
Photo
#3: Ready to mount Photo #5: Chucking recess laid out
The 1” recess
fits over the first step of the #1 jaws on my Oneway chuck and the face of the
blank seats against the second step.
With the blank mounted on the lathe I made a couple of light passes to
true up the outside face and then used dividers to lay out the chucking recess
for reverse mounting on my #2 jaws.
Photo
#5: Chucking recess cut Photo #6: Starting to shape the bottom
I cut the recess for the chuck jaws, slightly undercutting the side walls for the “dovetail” grip. Then I can start to shape the bottom of the bowl.