Applewood bowl

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BuckeyeDennis
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Re: Applewood bowl

Post by BuckeyeDennis »

Now we're starting to get into the good stuff. Gotta get to the beauty pics before Hobbyman burns up his whole apple tree!

As it happens, this is the very same bowl that motivated me to design and build the Cole-jaw extenders that I wrote about back in March, in this thread. After the bowl dried, it was severely out of round. The rim of the bowl was out by a good 1/2", and even the round tenon had turned into an oval that I didn't trust my chuck to hold securely. So in order to finish-turn it, I had to get creative with the workholding. If you haven't seen that other thread, here's a pic of the jaw extenders that I made using the WoodAnchor fixturing system.

Extenders only HD.JPG
Extenders only HD.JPG (154.83 KiB) Viewed 1446 times

And here's what the rough-turned bowl looks like when it's spinning. The ghosting at the rim and at the the tenon periphery show just how out of round the bowl is.

Bowl spinning HD.JPG
Bowl spinning HD.JPG (115.06 KiB) Viewed 1446 times

This picture, taken after finish-turning the bowl bottom, shows it even better. Check out how much the thickness of the unturned rim varies.

Finish-turned bottom HD.JPG
Finish-turned bottom HD.JPG (162.89 KiB) Viewed 1446 times

Now, with the tenon trued up, I can flip the bowl around and chuck up on the tenon. The pic below was taken after finish-turning the inside of the bowl, refining the bottom curves a bit, and applying a few coats of satin wipe-on poly. Instead of just putting a flat on the bottom of a roundish bowl bottom, I decided to leave a small "pedestal" for visual interest.

Varnished bottom HD.JPG
Varnished bottom HD.JPG (89.45 KiB) Viewed 1446 times

Now it's time to get rid of the tenon. So back into the cole-jaw extenders it goes. When I see turners removing tenons from large bowls on YouTube videos, they usually cut it off with a hand saw, and then flatten and smooth the bowl base with a sander. But the Cole-jaw extenders enabled me to simply turn it off, which is a much nicer process.

Before:

Remounted to finish pedestal HD.JPG
Remounted to finish pedestal HD.JPG (133.29 KiB) Viewed 1446 times

And after:

Tenon removed HD.JPG
Tenon removed HD.JPG (154.66 KiB) Viewed 1446 times

In the next installment, we'll cover a couple more nifty details, and get this bowl ready for Christmas morning!
Last edited by BuckeyeDennis on Wed Jan 19, 2022 9:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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algale
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Re: Applewood bowl

Post by algale »

wow! Nice work Dennis!
Gale's Law: The bigger the woodworking project, the less the mistakes show in any photo taken far enough away to show the entire project!

thunderbirdbat
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Re: Applewood bowl

Post by thunderbirdbat »

Nice. Now I know what to do with the apple tree that came down the other year, not as big though. I painted the ends but left it as I did not have time to cut it up and have not touched it since.
Brenda

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BuckeyeDennis
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Re: Applewood bowl

Post by BuckeyeDennis »

Thanks Al! And Brenda, I still have three log halves left from this tree. I think I'll cut one or two of them into blanks for tool handles. For lathe tools, chisels, files, and the like.
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BuckeyeDennis
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Re: Applewood bowl

Post by BuckeyeDennis »

We're now up to the morning of Christmas eve, 2021, and there was still a bit of work to be done. The previous year, having seen my lame attempt at using a Sharpie to sign the base of a bowl that I turned for my daughter, my wife took pity on me and bought me a personalized branding iron for Christmas. I hadn't used it yet, but this was definitely the time to do so!

I heated the branding iron head with a propane torch, and practiced branding some wood scraps. After playing with the head temperature and contact time, I finally managed a couple of decent practice brands in a row. So I held my breath and proceeded to brand the pedestal base. Then back the bowl went into the Cole jaws, where I turned an accent groove around the brand, and applied finish to the base.

Branded & varnished HD.JPG
Branded & varnished HD.JPG (155.78 KiB) Viewed 1409 times

That evening, after the finish had more-or-less dried, I rubbed it out with fine steel wool, applied a coat of JPW to add a bit of luster, and wrapped it for Christmas. With a whole hour or two to spare. :eek:

Interior HD.JPG
Interior HD.JPG (99.74 KiB) Viewed 1409 times
Bottom HD.JPG
Bottom HD.JPG (172.21 KiB) Viewed 1409 times

And that's all, folks -- questions, comments, and criticism are always welcome!
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JPG
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Re: Applewood bowl

Post by JPG »

Whats to criticize???
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edflorence
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Re: Applewood bowl

Post by edflorence »

+1!
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Hobbyman2
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Re: Applewood bowl

Post by Hobbyman2 »

Like !!!! If I show the wife this we may be buying mesquite chunks for the smoker !!
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reible
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Re: Applewood bowl

Post by reible »

Could you go over how you are chucking the bowl with your (I'm assuming") independent adjustable jaws?

I do love the bowl and I have a collection of apple wood branches that have really pretty grain patterns but no trunk bits for what you have done. We did have a tree die and I did save some wood but put it with the stack of other wood and forgot about it for a couple of years, wasn't good for it......

Ed
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BuckeyeDennis
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Re: Applewood bowl

Post by BuckeyeDennis »

reible wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 11:24 pm Could you go over how you are chucking the bowl with your (I'm assuming") independent adjustable jaws?

Ed
Sure thing, Ed. This is probably obvious from the pictures, but I'll state it anyway just to avoid any confusion. All of the actual clamping action is provided by the chuck. The "buffers", as Nova calls them, are adjusted only while there's no clamping pressure. They can be locked into any desired position along the WoodAnchor fixturing slot, by simply tightening their mounting screws. Standard Cole jaws, on the other hand, limit the choice of mounting position to one of their discrete threaded holes.

I've experimented with a few different methods for setting the buffer positions, and I'll describe the one that I like best so far. It uses the outside radii of the extender segments as measurement references. To true those up, I fully closed the chuck jaws, and then turned the OD of the entire assembly round in lathe mode. I experimented with using a sharp scraper to do this, but found that the plywood was too prone to chipping out on the trailing edges of the extender segments. So I switched over to "abrasive turning", meaning that I propped a sanding block atop the lathe tool rest and sanded the OD round while the assembly was spinning. I first made pencil lines all along the OD of the segments, so that I could tell when I had sanded it down beyond the lowest spots. To keep from loading up the sandpaper, I slid the sanding block back and forth along the length of the tool rest while sanding.

Truing the OD HD.JPG
Truing the OD HD.JPG (238.91 KiB) Viewed 1367 times

With the outside radii of the extender segments trued up, here's my buffer-setting process:
  • Dismount the chuck from the lathe, and place it on a flat surface with the buffers pointed upward.
  • Open the chuck jaws to roughly mid-travel.
  • Loosen the buffers, and slide them to the outer ends of the fixturing slots.
  • Place the workpiece atop the extender segments, and roughly centered on the chuck.
  • Slide one buffer inward until it just contacts the workpiece, and lock it down.
  • Remove the workpiece.
Next, I set the other three "loose" buffers to the same radius as the first one. A standard combination square makes a dandy depth gauge for this purpose. I set the blade extension to the buffer that I've already positioned, and then use the combination square to set the loose buffers to the exact same radius.

You can usually measure from the outside radius of the segment to the backside of the buffer, like this:

Equalizing buffer radius 2 HD.JPG
Equalizing buffer radius 2 HD.JPG (243.23 KiB) Viewed 1367 times

But if the workpiece is near the maximum capacity of the extenders, that big washer may stick out beyond the outside radius of the extender segment. In that case, you can use the same basic technique, but measure to the outside of the sliding nut instead of the buffer. The blade of a standard combination square fits into the fixturing slot, and the head will fit nicely beneath the washer.

Equalizing buffer radius 1 HD.JPG
Equalizing buffer radius 1 HD.JPG (205.44 KiB) Viewed 1367 times

Here's a pic of what's going on beneath the buffer and the washer with this technique. This may actually be the more accurate method, as the WoodAnchor sliding nut dimensions are very consistent.

Beneath the buffer HD.JPG
Beneath the buffer HD.JPG (216.81 KiB) Viewed 1367 times

To position the three loose buffers, I like to place them outboard of their final positions, and tighten the mounting screws just enough to provide a small amount of sliding resistance. Then I use the combination square blade to push them into their final positions. When the head contacts the extender segments, the buffers are properly positioned. At this point, I use my left hand to hold each buffer so that it can't rotate, and fully tighten its mounting screw with my right hand.

When finished with that, all the buffers will be at the same radius from the lathe axis, just as if you were using the standard threaded holes. If the workpiece is round, buffer adjustment is now complete. Simply mount the workpiece and tighten the chuck.

If the workpiece is not round, here's what I do next:
  • Open the chuck jaws.
  • Place the workpiece in its desired position on the extender segments, within the buffer ring.
  • Close the jaws until at least one buffer touches the workpiece. Unless you're intentionally setting up for offset turning, shift the workpiece and adjust the jaw opening to find the best fit to the buffers.
  • For any buffers that are not touching the workpiece: loosen their mounting screws, slide them inward until they touch the workpiece, and lock them down.
And that's it. You can now tighten the chuck and true up the workpiece.
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