9" Natural Edge Bowl (In Progress)

[Nate Davey]

For those of you who have laid awake at night wondering "Can I turn a 9" natural edge bowl on a Turncrafter Pro VS Lathe?" The answer is.....eventually. There seems to be a thermistor in line that shuts down the lathe if it gets too hot. So you have to let it sit for bit and cool off. I'm still trying to rough out the bottom. This is also my first bowl. So far I'm scared to death of the chisel hitting me in the face. I'll post once I've finished what ever it will end up being.

 

[rjwolfe3]

wow and here I was going to get a bigger lathe since I didnt think my turncrafter pro could turn something that big

 

[Nate Davey]

With the tail stock being so close, you can't really turn it properly. I ended up standing on the other side of the lathe to do some of the turning.

 

[markgum]

awesome. I tried to turn one my jet 10x14, it didn't work. I think the piece of wood was to small. So far looks good, can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[Dvoigt]

Yea I started turning bowl and other stuff on my little lathe too. It should would be nice to have more power as I can easily stall my lathe, even with a freshly sharpened tool.

You can go big on these lathes... it just takes time.

 

[louisbry]

Looking good so far! Keep up the good work.

 

[Rangertrek]

I tried several bowls on my TC Pro VS and had the same stall out problem. Let it rest a while is and it comes back to life.

That is one of the reasons I just bought a new Delta 46-460 1 hp variable speed. After 1 day of trying it out, there is an amazing difference!

Can't wait to see the final bowl. Looks very interesting. My first natural edge cracked on me about half way through turning.

 

[bitshird]

Great going, I'll bet it tried to walk away a few times didn't it?

 

[W.Y.]

Nice start on it .
Will be nice to see it all finished.
The most fun will start when you reverse it and start hogging out the middle .
I turned dozens of NE bowls on my little Jet 1220 mini lathe when I had it and a couple were 11.5" diameter .
Now that I have a 2 HP full size lathe I have not been able to find suitable wood to make a big NE bowl. Would love to turn a 18" one if I ever find the right log.

 

[Nate Davey]

Yes, the lathe danced around quite a bit. Got a little exciting until I removed some to the mass.

The middle wasn't too bad. The bowl is fairly shallow. Unfortunately, I'm a one chisel man right now. I do all my turning with a skewchi (sp?) gouge.

Here is the final shape with sanding sealer. The outer edges of the wood were pretty pithy so this will be my learning piece. I'll post a final pic when it is done.

Thanks all for the encouragement and advice.

 

[Mac]

Look good to me. Are you sure this is your first?

 

[Nate Davey]

Yeah, Youtube and the video tutorials really help.

 

[Nate Davey]

Here is what I ended up with. It's final diameter ended up being about 8". A lot of really good lessons learned. Thanks to dvoigts picture of his lathe with the bed extensions it clicked that I can remove the tailstock altogether and turn properly. The walls are a little thick and there are a few rough spots I just couldn't get rid of. All and all I'm happy with my first bowl. Please give any advice for improvement. I have thick skin.

 

[W.Y.]

Here is what I ended up with. It's final diameter ended up being about 8". A lot of really good lessons learned. Thanks to dvoigts picture of his lathe with the bed extensions it clicked that I can remove the tailstock altogether and turn properly. The walls are a little thick and there are a few rough spots I just couldn't get rid of. All and all I'm happy with my first bowl. Please give any advice for improvement. I have thick skin.

.

Nice try at your first NE bowl .
I have been trying to figure out why the shape of it isn't quite the same as most NE bowls that are more oval shape than yours and still have the Natural Edge bark on them. It must have had something to do with the particular piece of wood you are using.
This photo shows one of mine at the back left

and this one that sold for $69.00 last summer had a turned pedestal base on it but the photography was real bad on this one. It was actually the same nice color as the other one. . I learned on that one to not take pictures outside in sunlight. It sold before I got a chance to take a better picture.

 

[Nate Davey]

William,

The piece of wood I started out with was a fairly thin slab off the side of a very large tree, do didn't have the curvature. Thanks for the comments and beautiful job on your bowls. That is the standard I am aspiring to.