Bottom of Bowls

Greetings:

This weekend browsing around I ran into a very nicely turned bottom of a bowl. How do most of you turn the bottoms. I've seen everything from just flat as cut off and others with just a slight concave and then some with a deeper concave. Any suggestions for different bottoms and how to turn them would be apreciated.

Best regards, Charles

Reply to
Charles A. Peavey
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Vacuum chuck

Peter Teubel Milford, MA

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Reply to
Peter Teubel

concave is important to prevent wobble. how much (beyond some minimal amount) is a matter of aesthetics

Reply to
william_b_noble

The simplest way to finish turn the bottom of a bowl is to plan ahead and leave a little waste wood on the bottom, then turn it off as the final step. You need to reverse the bowl and hold it between centers to do this. Make a padded insert (basically just a block of wood 4" or 5" in diameter with rounded edges) to fit inside the bowl on the headstock end and hold the bowl against it with the tailstock. The bowl will be powered by friction only, so take light cuts as you whittle away the remaining bit of wood on the bottom. You won't be able to get it all, but the last little stub under the tail center is easy to remove with a knife or Dremel. There are lots of other methods of holding the bowl reversed so you can work on the bottom, some you can make yourself, some expensive, and like everything else in life they each have their advantages and disadvantages. That's a big topic, but this is a quick and easy way to get started, and many people use it exclusively.

-mike paulson, fort collins, co

Reply to
Mike Paulson

I like to turn just a small beaded ring for the foot of a bowl, 1/8" or

3/16" wide and 2 or 3" diameter depending on the size of bowl (I turn 6 to 10" bowls, no larger).

I aim for a continuous curve across the foot, trying for an even wall thickness from center of bowl to rim. Don't always get it though :-]

I recently put a vacuum chuck system together, it has been a godsend.

The tool I like most for finishing the bottom is a 3/8" diameter fluteless gouge--just a round shaft with half the tip's diameter ground away, and the tip ground to a spoon shape with a fairly long bevel.

Ken Grunke

kenspin at mwt dot net

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Reply to
Ken Grunke

Hi Mike,

How is the bottom of the bowl sanded while its still on the lathe between centers. Do you use power sanding and then whittle away the remaining bit of wood on the bottom. Or do you do the sanding after the remaining bit of wood has been removed?

Reply to
Denis Marier

It depends on what's easiest for me at the time. Sometimes I hold up a piece of sandpaper to the spinning bowl and sand what I can and then finish off the last little bit by hand. Other times I mount a sanding disk in a jacobs chuck on the lathe and hold the bowl up to it to sand the foot. If there is a deep recess in the foot or it has sharp detailling I don't want to soften, the first way is easier. If the bottom has only a shallow concavity I usually prefer the second method.

-mike

Reply to
Mike Paulson

Reply to
Denis Marier

I like a compression chuck like the one that Bill Grumbine shows at

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This works well with bowls witha flat surface at the lip. For natural edge bowls, a piece of carpet padover a piece of 3" plastic waste line, a rounded end piece of scrape or evendirectly over a scroll chuck makes a good friction drive to trap the bowlagainst the tailstock center. Others have already desribed this process.

Reply to
Marshall Gorrow

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