Help from you bowl guys!!

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ed4copies

ed4copies

Local Chapter Manager
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Location
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OK, I want to make a YouTube showing how easy it is to make a bowl, for the Beads of Courage program.

So, last night I glue up 2 pieces of poplar, each 8 x 8 x 2ish. Gives me a blank that is 8 x 8 x 4 (the bowl guys knew this, but I am writing for everyone!). Today it is dry, the pieces are ready to turn.

So, I mark center and mount on the lathe (Jet Mini) between centers to turn to round. Right away, I notice the corners JUST clear the ways and the banjo is not going to be under the blank!! Well, ok, so I will turn off the first 3/4" or so that I can reach, then move the banjo, turn off 3/4, etc.

Move the drive belt to slowest and begin. I found a bowl gouge in my shop last night, I still kinda know how to use it, things go OK, but the lathe seems very underpowered, I am able to stop the piece by trying to take off a little more than a whisker. So, stop the cameras!! Sharpen the tool. Continue. Better, but not real good. Well, I slowly got it to a round cylinder, but the video is NOT going to look easy.

Any clues? Is there a way to drive this better? Or is that big a piece just too much for the little motor?

Can anybody tell me how to make it look simple?

Thanks for any and all input!!

Ed
(Bowls ain't my THING, but I wanna do won!!!)
 
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I am not a "bowl guy", but I have turned some biggish things on my mini once upon a time.

When you say "stop the piece" do you mean you are actually stalling the motor?

Are you using a drive center or the screw chuck?
 
I like to use Steb Centers, both headstock and tailstock, and/or faceplates. And I have turned 8" on my jet Mini (it was not happy, but toughed it out just fine).

Don't mean to insinuite anything about age Ed... But how old are the belts (On the lathe :tongue:).
 
keithbyrd said:
Move it up one gear and increase the speed - I usually start tuning bowls at between 800-1200 - wherever I can get the smoothest rotation.
Click to expand...

I do the same thing. Slow when the blank is out of balance but speed it up bit by bit as the blank gets more balanced. It may also help to take smaller cuts...
 
Ed, to turn a bowl, I usually cut the corners off the block of wood with a bandsaw. If you don't own a bandsaw, you can always cut the corners off using a handsaw. Other than that, I don't know of any other tips to help you out once the blank is turned round.
Len
 
Answers: I am using a drive center that comes with the Golden Barracuda scroll chuck.
I agree a screw would be better, but I was chicken---it's been ten years since I had anything that big on the lathe. (My Dewalt table saw just got moved here from my home---I'm real careful with it, too----comfort level will come back, but for now, I am 10 fingered chicken!!)

I am capable of stopping the motor--but I let it breathe when it comes close, so NO, I have not stopped it, the workpiece is slipping (back to the screw--you are correct, it will be the way I do the next one).

Belts?? Old??? Hills?? Old??? Certainly would be a reasonable replacement part!! Thanks!!

Yes Dan, I have a great bandsaw and it would have made this round----but I want to do what EVERYONE can do---that means use the lathe!

Thanks to all---I will try the belt and the screw and see, on my next attempt. This time, I guess we will leave out the "turning to round". Like "everyone can do that!!" (except me)

It's a big chunk of wood---will be an interesting bowl.

Thanks!!!
Ed
 
Ed, if you can get the tool rest banjo under the tailstock drive you can work from the center out. You'll actually be starting to shape the outer bowl as you sneak up on those pesky corners. If the blank is fairly balanced there's no rule it has to be rounded first. Think of it as turning a square edge bowl... If the blank was only 2" thick I'd suggest using a parting tool to round from the tailstock side.
 
It all boils down to speeds and feeds. Your lathe just doesn't really have the torque to turn a large item at high speed with more than light cuts. Consider:

1/2" pen turning at 3000 RPM = 392 SFPM
8" bowl turning at 1000 RPM = 2093 SFPM

That's huge! Should you actually cut at that speed? Sure, but it means many light cuts.

I've turned some 12" bowls on my lathe and it's a challenge. There's really not enough torque in the mid-range for a bowl that size. I put it in low speed range and run at 7-800 RPM (about 2200-2500 SFPM). For most woods that's an acceptable speed range. I guess your lathe motor runs at full speed (max torque) all the time so just adjust your gear ratios to get the desired result.
 
I've turned quite a few bowls and used to do it on my Jet 1220. The lathe bounced all over until the blank was rounded out. It was do-able but not my best best choice.
I would consider
- using a smaller blank, maybe 6" square at best. An 8" blank on a small lathe is what one might call an "adventure".
- using a small face plate instead of TBC with a steb drive. Any material that is outside the circumference of the footprint of whatever you use to mount the blank is a weight issue until the blank is balanced/rounded while spinning. One decent catch and blanks started flying off the lathe...not my idea of fun.
Cheers
Bob
 
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go to youtube

watch a basic bowl turning video by Capn Eddie

I would also suggest Robo Hippy's videos, but he tends to use scrapers more than gouges.
 
I think that the beads of courage box could be a little smaller. It sounds like your belt might be slightly slipping. I have a small Rikon and I can turn up to a 9" bowl with no problem. I can turn them on my little jet also
 
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Ed,

I have turned a quite a few bowls in the past and a several things will help you get faster results. ( others have already mentioned some )

Rough cutting a circular blank saves frustration for sure.
Driving the blank with a screw chuck or faceplate will avoid the slippage of using a spur drive.
Starting from the tail-stock towards the headstock to knock off material for your rough shape gets the lathe in balance quickly. It also will give you room for the banjo.
The faster you can turn initially with little vibration the better. You will get better cutting action from your tool .
Any Mike Mahoney videos you can view on-line will help.
 

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Ed,
I've done a quite few bowls on my 1014... for my part, I think part of the slippage is the drive center... I start all bowls on a face plate.. maybe I'm a little chicken or just gun shy, but I still have all my fingers, most of my teeth and both eyes... plan to keep it that way... I think your little lathe has the power to handle the 8" bowl... I've turned up to 9 1/2 inch bowls on mine, though I've had some adventures... the one that comes to mind is a piece of zebrawood that was an 8+ inch bowl and almost finished, but I needed to touch up the inside... I got ahead of myself and put the tool against the wood, before I put the tool on the tool rest... not a good procedure... the tool caught the wood (spinning at about 800-1000), slammed the tool onto the tool rest and sheared off the cross bar... I had the bowl flying in one direction, pieces of the tool bar in a couple of others, and Chuck was ducking for cover in another....
 
I can stop a 2 horsepower Oneway. It starts with physics, apply a force at a distance kind of thing. Try turning 20" diameter bowls, you really have to take it easy at that diameter. I didn't see in a post, did you have the belt on the slowest setting? The VS speed motor drops off in hp and torque really quickly as you turn down the VS. Use the lower pulley setting, and keep up the rpms. After that, fine cuts at the full diameter does the trick.
 
I turned 2 bowls last month and I used my compound miter saw to take the corners off and then put the bowl on the lathe and started from the bottom and rounded the round part of the bottom of the bowl to get the shape and made a tenon for the chuck to hold onto. My bowls turned out great. As far as a video, I wouldn't know how to do one even if I wanted to... So just about any saw would work for knocking off the corners and yep I saved those corners as I have an idea for their use. Fay
 
OK Fay...What do you have in mind for the bowl corners? ;>) I've got a couple 5 gal. buckets full of them as I couldn't throw those expensive exotic wood cutoffs into a fireplace. I've been thinking of gluing the up for pen blanks or??? Any other ideas out there???
 
How big were the original blanks those corners came from? Even small bowls would have enough most likely to make the mini-styluses. Only need a couple inches to make half a pen (make the other half something completely different or mix/match via segmenting).

Bottle stoppers, keychains, finials for the lids on lidded bowls, knobs for drawers, earrings, pendants, maybe some small-scale "inside out" turnings (which would factor in the already somewhat rounded part on the inside of those former corners)....
 
I was partly thinking of gluing up two of the corners to make them into squares and yep they will make nice roofs for mini birdhouses or what other small things to make. I did have planned on making some jigs of some kind. Not sure for what but the bird house roofs at least I would not have to paint t hem after they are done. you probably could make pen blanks out of them too. I think I will give that a try as it is pretty wood. Any way, I will come up with some other ideas as I go along. Once in a while I get good ones too.. Fay
 
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