Hollowing Out Of Round Bowls

[Howard Hale]

Got some cut offs from a saw mill that still had the beautiful natural edge I want to use to make bowls. Want to keep the edge intact but it slopes from the top edge to the bottom resulting in the interior out of round. Wondering if there are those who create such out of round bowls and any tips you might suggest. The exterior is not a problem as I have turned natural edge bowls but the interior has always been round as well. Thanks for any tips or suggestions.

 

[Mark Jundanian]

I'm not following? The pictures suggest you've already succeeded, or is that an example of what you are attempting to do?

 

[Howard Hale]

I have gotten to this point with an assortment of crude approaches. I am wondering if there are other turners who work with odd shapes like this more often and who may have tips on better approaches. This example was shown to explain the shape and slope of the interior I had to deal with.

 

[robo hippy]

I am guessing that you wanted to keep the natural burl pieces on the outside of the bowl. That type of bowl may take a lot more thought in the design process than a standard round bowl. I do like the idea. For me, it is a piece that would have sat around the shop for a long time, in plain view where I could see it every day, and then after a long time, the inspiration would hit me... It kind of looks like a calabash type of bowl, meaning the outside top of the bowl curves in some what. Correct?

robo hippy

 

[Richard Coers]

Looks to me like the only choice is to turn on two axis and get an asymmetrical wall thickness if you wanted to do it all on the lathe with no hand carving. Or turn a smaller inner diameter and have a wide rim.

 

[Odie]

I have gotten to this point with an assortment of crude approaches.

I'm wondering what your "crude approach" is......so, how did you do that?

I've done something similar, but not exactly the same. It would be too time consuming if the interior had to be hand sanded, so the best bet would be a shape that could be power sanded easily, not spinning on the lathe. As for carving out the interior......good old fashioned mallet driven carving tools would be my guess.......

As does Mark above, it does look like you are achieving success.....and to me, it looks very good.

Maybe what you need to do is refine what is already working for you, so that the method, itself, is working better.......?

At any rate, I'm intrigued with what you've already accomplished.....definitely has appeal to it!

-----odie-----

 

[Howard Hale]

My crude approach included initial turning the center as far as i could before hitting the protruding wall which did leave a thick wall which I did not want. So out came the forstner bits to hog out as much as i could of the center. I also used Dremel tool to carve additional material and to thin down the walls. I, too, did not want to hand sand this thing (hate sanding) so i used an assortment of power sanding sizes to continue. It did take time but maybe not as much as I felt like while doing it. Thanks for all your comments. I have several more to complete so this one was my prototype.