Good Morning All,
Ive been looking at the turning blank since Tuesday and Ive decided to shape it into a calabash bowl. Calabash bowls have a narrow opening at the top that is smaller in diameter than the widest part of the bowl. Ive never made one before and I think this shape will fit the shape of the turning blank. So off we go.
Shaping the bottom
Since the blank is still attached to the faceplate I decided to shape the bottom of the bowl first. So I took the whole thing back to the wood shop and re-attached it to the lathe and the first thing I noticed was an ominous looking series of cracks in the surface of the blank. The bottom needed to be trued up and the bark was still attached to the blank too. These are all problematic features and have to be dealt with first:
I like to take a straight edge to check the flatness of the bottom of bowls and platters. It can be difficult to see small subtleties and its important for the bottom of the bowl to be flat so it wont spin on a flat surface:
Ive gently shaved the bottom flat and Ive also located the center of the foot and marked off a 2 inch diameter circle and a 3 inch diameter circle. Im not sure yet just how Im going to mount the bottom of the bowl onto the lathe and so these two circles will let me either center a small faceplate or create a recess for my Nova chuck. Those can stay there for the time being:
In this photo you can see the flattened bottom clearly. Ive roughly marked the widest part of the bowl in white pencil. Approximately 1/3 of the bowl will sit below this mark and 2/3 will sit above this mark:
Time to begin shaping the blank. There is a lot of wood to be removed before we get to our final shape:
You can see in this photo how Ive rounded off the upper 2/3 in preparation for really narrowing this portion of the bowl.
Here is the bowl several minutes later:
And about 10 minutes later:
Time to take the blank off the lathe and stand it up to see clearly what the shape looks like. I think the general shape of the bowl is good. My next step is to shape the bottom a little more, cut a recess in the bottom for my Nova Chuck and smooth the wood. I like to get the bottom of any bowl nearly finished before I flip it over and re mount it. Its much easier to do this now rather than later:
Here Im cutting a recess in the foot of the bowl with my tailstock removed and a drill chuck inserted into its place. You can see the big Forstner bit Im using for this:
The Forstner bit will produce a recess with straight sides and well need to dovetail the sides so the chuck will fit into the recess more securely. Im going to do this with the small parting tool you see in the photo. This takes only a minute or two to accomplish and it makes the chuck sit more firmly in the recess of the bowl:
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