First Bowl

  

On my last post I wrote about making a sweater and that my next project was learning to turn a wooden bowl on a lathe.  I signed up for and took a class on bowl turning.  It was given at Woodcraft in Roanoke.

  

I didn't know that you shaped it with a holder screwed into the face of the bowl.  Then I had to build a shelf on the bottom to hold a chuck that was tightened to that shelf.  The holder that had been screwed on the face was removed, the bowl was flipped  and the chuck was placed on the turning spindle of the lathe.

  

Then I began to hollow it out.

  

After you finish with shaping your bowl, sanding is pretty easy and fast.  You simply hold strips of varying grits of sandpaper against the bowl as it is turning on the lathe.

The more wood I removed, the more I loved the Maple Ambrosia I had chosen for my bowl.  It has swirls of browns and and black worm holes and I'm intrigued by all the different colors.

The instructor told us that most people make a bowl with sloped sides that looks like a flower pot or with straight sides. I decided to make mine to have rounded sides with an inward swoop up to a flared rim.  I got close to that shape and I like it for my first bowl.

  

The instructor helped to remove the bowl from the chuck. If you do it wrong you may fling your bowl across the room and ruin it.  I want to try one more class where I do everything from start to finish with no help.

Then I can do it on my own.

  

I need a few more things to make a bowl on my own.  We have a Shopsmith that includes a lathe and some basic chisels. I can't wait for the first one I make on my own equipment.  Or maybe the tenth on my own equipment. That one is bound to be better than the first.