turning bowls

can an oland tool comepletely take over the job of the bowlgouge? how would you go about using a spindle gouge for bowls? when using the kelton coring system how do you mount the inner bowls to the lathes? is a faceplate and glued wasteblock the only option? how do you finish the foot afterwards? otherways besides a doughnut chuck, vaccuum chuck or jumbo jaws. ~B

If you're committed, possibly. It's an edge on a stick. What it lacks as the clearance geometry for some cuts.

how

By rolling it up on its edge and paring away wood, same as you should be using it for spindles.

Screw chuck, pin jaws, will work, with the help of your tailstock and maybe a spindle extender. The way you mount to reverse and hollow is your choice. I don't like feet on bowls, so I use a recess. Means it's finished before I turn to hollow.

Lissi Oland did a demo at our club Thursday night. She did a deep form with natural edge. She used only the 1/4" tool to shape and the round cutter for final finish. Dave

Remounting with the Kelton/McNaughton coring system: Mike Mahoney has a DVD out that shows one way to do it. For me I do it different. I use a recess (mortice) in each bowl. I take the largest core first. To remount the core, sometimes I leave the faceplate on, or I will turn a mortice in the top of the core after removing the faceplate. After the core is removed, I finish the inside of the bowl on the lathe, then remount the core, turn the outside of it, reverse it, core it, and repeat until I can't get any more cores. I do turn to finish thickness, and then let the bowl dry and warp. Power sanding is a must, but I like the unusual shapes. If you turn thick, dry, and then return, I suppose you could use the same method that I do, but since you have to remount and return the bowl anyway, you could just turn out each blank, probably from the center out so that you only have to mount the biggest bowl once. robo hippy.

I start my bowls with a worm screw, cut a tenon in the bottom and reverse it, so that the hole from the screw is in the middle of the blank when it's reversed... (the tenon held in the chuck)

I core the outer bowl, remount the blank on the worm screw using the same (now threaded) hole, and turn a tenon on the bottom..

Repeat as necessary...

For a REAL answer, ask Robohippy... he's the coring expert and is very good at explaining the system..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Sure, Oland tools can take the place of bowl gouges easily. Lissie Oland will happily rough and finish turn a 30" walnut bowl using only the 1/4" Oland. See

for an example or two. Of course she cores the thing with a chain saw which I am not about to do. I like the Oland tools in sizes from 1/8" to 1/2". My lathe and my market tend to keep me in the 14" range for a big bowl but bigger and smaller are no problem for an Oland tool. These are cutting tools, not scrapers although a shear cut is no problem.

Darrell, Cool site. I was just at Brasstown this past fall. Looks like a great home. Series of bowl pictures really neat. Quite a lady.

TomNie