EcrosTechWiki | Woodworking / Turning a Basic Wood Bowl

This page is about the steps involved in turning a basic wood bowl. Here "basic" means the following :

Side-grain mounted, not end-grain. That is, the grain of the wood is at right angles to the axis of the lathe, not along the axis. Most wood bowls are side-grain. Turning an end-grain bowl presents additional difficulties for dubious, if any, advantage.
The widest part of the bowl opening is at or rear the top. Put another way, the bowl does not get wider and then narrower again. Or, if it does, then by very little. Turning a bowl that closes up at the top presents additional difficulties.
The wood is reasonably well suited to bowl work. For example, cherry is famously easy to work. Leopardwood, oak, not so much. MORE HERE.

To go to the page with the detailed description, click on "Part 1", "Part 2", etc. There will be links to move on to the next part or bring you back here.

Part 1 - Preparing the Blank and Mounting it on the Lathe

A bowl blank is a chunk of wood, usually square and of some uniform thickness. For a small bowl, the blank might be six inches square and two inches thick. To prepare this to become a bowl, it must be fixed to the lathe so as to spin around an axis along the thickness and in the middle of the square faces. Before this, I like to cut away the corners, resulting in an octagon, so that it's less alarming when spun up and there's less waste wood to remove before the fun starts. Some blanks are already round, so this step isn't needed. Excuse me for showing four inch square blanks in the pictures, but I'm just starting out.

Part 2 - Shaping the Bottom and Outside of the Bowl

At first, the blank is fixed on the lathe by one or more screws into the top face. Preparation must be made for holding the bowl the other way around so that the inside of the bowl can be hollowed out and the holes made by the screws will be gone (see below). I do this by cutting a shallow, circular hole (a mortise) that will be gripped from the inside by my scroll chuck. Another way is to make a circular disk sticking out from the bottom of the bowl to be gripped on the outside. This "tenon" has to be removed in a later step, which is why I prefer the mortise. Outside the mortise an area must be prepared to be the foot of the bowl, on which it will stand. Beyond this, the outside of the bowl must be cut to the desired shape. Doing all these things together avoids the problem of remounting the bowl later on and finding that it does not "run true".

Part 3 - Turning the Bowl and Shaping the Inside

The workpiece is now removed and the worm screw taken out of the chuck. The workpiece is turned around and remounted on the lathe by expanding the chuck jaws into the mortise (first picture at right). The tailstock can be brought up with a live center for extra stability, but it will have to be removed when it starts to get in the way. If any extra work on the outside of the bowl is needed, for example an outward curve from the rim downwards, it should be done first. Next, the top of the rim should be cleaned up. The main work is the removal of wood from the inside of the bowl (second picture at right). The inner surface then needs to be carefully smoothed and left with a pleasing curve.

Part 4 - Sanding and Finishing

The surface left by the lathe tool will depend on how sharp it was, your skill in using it and the nature of the blank. Some sanding will be needed before finishing (first picture at right). You can start at 120 grit, 80 if you have ripples to remove or torn grain. For a clean surface off the tool, you can skip to 150 or 180. Then work your way up to 320 or 400 grit, not missing out any intermediate grades. If you have serious problems or are just pressed for time, you can use a small (two inch diameter) disk sander in a power drill, but be careful not to skip and damage an edge. Depending on the finish you choose, you may be able to apply it while the bowl is still on the lathe (second picture at right).

YouTube Video References. TO DO : Move to the video page and organize that.

1 - beginners woodturning How to turn your first bowl . Black Label Woodworks.

2 - Woodturning FAILS Recessed Mortise, Turn A Wood Bowl.

3 - Bowl Gouge Beginner First Use How To Video - Woodturning, Turn A Wood Bowl.

4 - Turning Your First Bowl, Axminster Tools.