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Get clear cuts and a good end from a difficult piece of fabric.
A dwell edge (or natural-edge) bowl is likely one of the iconic types of fashionable woodturning, and it’s nonetheless a smart way to exhibit a stunning piece of wooden. It’s additionally a good take a look at of your creating turning expertise. Good device management is essential for getting a clear minimize and a easy curve, particularly on the wings of the bowl, the place it is going to be tough or inconceivable to adequately sand out any main defects.
The process is comparable whatever the dimension or different points of the piece. A limb or log is minimize down the middle. The outdoors curve of the limb or log will turn out to be the rim of the bowl. This half-section is mounted both between facilities (as on this article), or on a faceplate or screw chuck, to flip the skin and to put together the foot for re-mounting. It is then re-mounted on a waste block (as right here), faceplate or chuck to flip the within. A remaining mounting both between facilities (for a easy foot just like the one proven right here), or in some form of jig, permits the foot to be neatly completed.
Although the fundamental format is easy, small variations in form and element can have a appreciable affect on the general look of the piece, so making these bowls may be a good train in design as properly. The bowl may be nearly any dimension; you’re restricted solely by the dimensions of limbs or logs obtainable and nearly any species will work. The bark could also be left on or eliminated, the rim might curve in or out, the piece could also be deep or shallow. The bowl might have a plain or fancy foot, or no foot in any respect. There are many doable variations inside this ostensibly restricted kind. Exploring them can sharpen your eye in addition to your turning expertise.
1. To arrange to flip a natural-edge bowl, the workpiece is mounted between facilities with a spur drive within the headstock and a dwell heart within the tailstock.
2. Begin reducing the skin form with a bowl gouge. You ought to minimize from the bottom (the middle of the limb) towards the rim, or prime, of the bowl (the bark aspect of the clean). The flute of the device needs to be pointing within the route you might be reducing, and you have to be utilizing the low aspect of the gouge to minimize (that’s, the a part of the sting most instantly supported by the toolrest).
3. As the piece spins, you may see the form of the skin curve of the limb (this would be the rim of the piece), surrounded by a ghost picture of the whole limb part.
4. Getting a clear minimize and a easy curve when alternately reducing wooden and air may be tough. You should slice throughout the irregularity, fairly than bouncing alongside on it. Instead of shifting the entire device ahead, attempt utilizing your left hand to maintain the device firmly down towards the toolrest in a single spot. Then …
5. … lever the device throughout the minimize. Use the leverage the deal with affords by holding it towards the top together with your proper hand (my proper hand is shut in solely so each fingers may be seen within the picture). Swing easily via the minimize…
6. … till the device exits the minimize. Then transfer your left (fulcrum) hand, and repeat. Keep the toolrest shut to the workpiece, and preserve your gouge very sharp. Faster lathe velocity can even assist, however watch out not to exceed a secure velocity in your lathe and for the dimensions of the workpiece. Remember, this type of turning tends to be extra out of stability than common bowls, even when the rounding has been accomplished.
7. Continue shaping the skin of the bowl. Keep the device sharp and listen to controlling it. Push up the aspect of the bowl (into the minimize), not towards the axis (into the workpiece).
8. With the lathe stopped, you may see whether or not you will have turned away the entire flat ends of the part. With the flat ends gone, proceed to refine the form and the floor till you will have a bowl you want.
9. With a fingernail-grind spindle (element) gouge, even up the foot and switch it flat.
10. Leave a clear, barely tapered nub within the heart of the foot. This might be used to heart the bowl for the glue mount. I discover this a handy, fast and secure means to mount a smaller bowl reminiscent of this one. If the piece had been bigger, I would mount it on a faceplate (utilizing a nub the identical diameter because the opening within the faceplate to facilitate centering) or a chuck (which might necessitate mounting the piece on a faceplate or screw chuck so as to flip a recess within the foot for the chuck jaws).
11. Mount a piece of waste wooden (don’t use very delicate wooden, or simply cut up wooden reminiscent of oak) on a faceplate, flip it spherical and flatten the floor. Measure the nub you left on the underside of the bowl, switch this to the waste block, then minimize a barely tapered recess. I take a look at the match by pushing the bowl into the waste block with the lathe on (leaving the burn marks seen right here), however in case you aren’t snug with this, simply attempt the match with the lathe stopped. Adjust, take a look at, and repeat till you will have a good match. Put thick cyanoacrylate glue on the bowl backside, spray accelerator on the waste piece, then mount the bowl.
12. You might find a way to convey up the tailstock for assist as you start to excavate the bowl. But watch out to minimize solely on the fitting aspect of the gouge, as reducing with the left (excessive) aspect is more likely to trigger a dangerous catch.
13. Continue eradicating wooden from the inside. Cut from the rim towards the middle/backside. Stop every minimize earlier than you attain the waste left from the earlier minimize. If you run the gouge into the waste, it would catch.
14. You can minimize from the middle down on the waste left within the center. This makes use of completely different muscle tissues, supplying you with a relaxation, and makes use of the opposite aspect of the gouge, that means fewer journeys to the grinder. It additionally applies drive primarily towards the headstock fairly than laterally, lessening the possibilities of pulling the piece off the mount. Cut prime to backside, proper to left (downhill) and use the left (low) aspect of the gouge. (This is a smaller bowl, which I shortly mounted and turned to simply this level after blowing aside the earlier one. Oops.)
15. When you will have accomplished the excavation of the within of the bowl and sanded it to your satisfaction, take away the piece from the glue block. Put a towel on the lathe mattress so the piece doesn’t get broken in case you don’t catch it. Place a flat chisel alongside the glue joint and faucet sharply with a mallet. It ought to pop proper off.
16. The piece is mounted to end the foot. Turn a rounded edge on a waste block (you might have considered trying to use a bigger waste block for this), place some foam between the block and the bowl to defend it, and convey it up the tailstock (with dwell heart in place) to maintain the piece. Slow the lathe velocity down, and trim the glue off of the sting.
17. Turn a clear, barely concave floor on the foot. After the piece is faraway from the lathe, you may carve off the little nub (left within the heart) with a small carving gouge and sand it easy. PW
Power Sanding Natural Edges
The sanding disc is mounted in a reversible drill.The disc floor on the level of contact needs to be moving into the wrong way from the bowl floor at that time. Here, the disc is contacting the wooden at roughly 2 o’clock; the arrows present route of rotation.
Here the disc is contacting the wooden at 11 to 12 o’clock; this implies the disc floor is touring off of and away from the sting, not into it. It’s crucial to maintain the disc within the appropriate place. Keep it on the stage of the floor of the wings and let the sanding grit do the work. Don’t push the disc towards the bowl, or it would have a tendency to be caught because the voids come round in between the wings of the bow. At greatest this can spherical over the main edges of the wings; at worst it may seize and harm the disc and even pull it into the gaps.
It nonetheless could also be essential to do some energy sanding with the lathe stopped. This tends to go away heavier scratches which can be harder to take away, so use a delicate foam disc, and pay explicit consideration to eliminating all marks from the earlier grit earlier than shifting on to the subsequent. —JD
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