Again, quartersawn sycamore makes some great wooden bowls and vases. If I were to explain all aspects of all turning processes it would simply be too much. While some of the kinds of wood mentioned here come under the category of exotic and perhaps you may not find them easily, the others are. It is natural in this species to have hairline checks along the black stripes. If you can imagine it well enough in your wood lathe for turning large bowls note, you may not tudning to go outside and try it, but it can be fun either way. I am a beginner at wlod turning. Thank you so much.

However it requires some special set up. In this instructional video the bowl blank started as a log, which is then mounted on a four-jaw chuck for turning.

Important aspects of working with large chunks of wood include speed control, working with off center blanks, and taking advantages of the ability to reverse.

Different lathes offer different features. For turning large bowls look for a heavy machine with variable speed, a robust tool rest, and reverse capabilities.

In all likelihood a large blank like this will come from a log, meaning the wood is green, and dripping wet. WoodWorkers Guild of America has lots of woodturning videos. Need to advance your skills? Check out our large variety of woodturning technique videos. Looking for lathe projects? Have a look at our many woodturning projects. Click here to cancel reply. Hi George! I have 2 questions: — how do you precisely determine the centers of both faces of the rough in order to get them well aligned on the lathe?

Good questions; thanks for sending. The first center is determined by eyeballing when the chuck is mounted. Once the piece is mounted, the opposing center is established by the mount point that you chose for your chuck. When you approach the blank with your live center, do this slowly and turn the blank while you advance the live center.

If it lands on a spot that will force the live center to one side or the other, back the live center up and use a chisel to flatten a spot for a clean landing by the live center. George uses a large forstner bit for this. You can also get started using a screw chuck mounted in your four jaw chuck if you have one that is sufficiently large for the bowl blank that you are mounting.

If you are uneasy about it, use a large forstner but to establish a mortise that your chuck can grab onto. Do any of you videos show how to mount the four jaw chuck on a bowl.

I am a beginner at bowl turning. Use common sense, pay attention to your turning bowl blank, know the limits based on each bowl size and you can make a beautiful bowl safely and efficiently. However, the pulleys are aluminum and the shaft is steel a very bad combination! Do you know where I might find a variable speed motor and speed control.

I love turning bowls but the lack of speed control is a problem. Hi, everybody, I come from Malta I do not know if everyone knows where that is? It is a Mediterranean country just below Sicilytis an island full of sunshine. Anyway, that is just y introduction. I have just bought a lathe an Austrian lathe Holzmann Dfxl, it is not such a great thing but for me, as an enthusiast, it is great although the seller gave me a hard time.

I am finding your articles very helpful and I am learning a lot and always looking forward for your new articles. I am just turning spindles fr the time being but later I will try to do some bowl turning. In Malta timber is so expensive and blanks are very rare to get but every now and then I go to some furniture makers and try to buy some offcuts which I still have to buy.

Boy have I learned about lathe speed the hard way. A trip to the ER and 15 stitches! I was in the final sanding phase and spinning pretty fast when kaboom!

The work piece came apart. One piece hit we in the chest and the other whacked my pinky finger really good. I first thought of amputation or broken bones. But when I gather the nerve to look I saw everything still attached but definitely messed up. The next day I looked at the work piece and saw that a glue joint had failed. Crystallized glue stuck to both sides of the joint, but no torn wood grain. So the glue just let go. I had no idea how fast I was turning because the lathe is an old Teknatool that I adapted with a new 3 phase 2 hp motor and VFD.

The scale on the machine was no longer valid. I decided to figure something out, so during my convalescence I researched spindle tachometer. I found one that uses a small magnet on the turning spindle that is read by a sensor and displays RPM on a digital read out.

So how fast had I been going when things went South? Now that I have a functional tachometer I feel safe again. Also, no need to sand that fast, be sure to check out my sanding article too. All the best to you and be safe, Kent. Hi Loren or Ken, I am not sure to whom this email will go. I have a Teknatool I would like to convert to a variable speed Laminating Wood For Turning Bowls Flutter lathe. Electric motors are a mystery to me and I could use some advice. Can this lathe be converted? Any help would be appreciated.

Kind regards Leo. Kent, As usual, I learned some valuable information from your article. If anyone mentions starting Bowl turning I would direct them to your site,. I am fully addicted, having turned over 20 bowls so far. I find myself at the office or before going to sleep, mentally turning bowls lol.

Thanks Tex. I fully agree with this article and understand centrifugal force physics background. However, I have noticed problems for personality types that follow strict rules and guidelines without thinking.

I turn pens in addition to bowls. On several occasions in the past 15 years, bowl turners would come on and be horrified at rpm or rpm and make statements on how dangerous that was. This article is for bowls and large diameter work. I understand that, and you understand that, but there are a few of those that follow that rule of the law into other territories pen and spindle turning worlds and are horrified by it.

Thanks for sharing. Yes, I mention that spindle work is done at much higher speeds. This site is all about the art of making wooden bowls. If I were to explain all aspects of all turning processes it would simply be too much. Hope this helps. There is a Busy Bee Machines lathe — Craftex CX that seems a good start for a new lathe, but slowest spindle speed is Should i consider something that will go even slower to increase my margin of safety for inch bowls down the road?

I would recommend trying to find a variable speed lathe. A fixed speed lathe, especially one that can only go as slow as rpm is not good for bowl turning and not safe. If you put an unbalanced bowl blank, even a smaller one, on this lathe Wood Lathe For Turning Bowls 77 and flip it on to a set rpm, some bad things can easily happen. Variable speed lathes allow you to make all the incremental adjustments you need as you turn. Check out variable speed lathe review as an example. A fixed speed lathe will be an issue with larger turnings.

Let me know if that helps. Thanks for the comment. Seems pretty straight forward. Agree — its the other way around!! It has a circumference of It assumes all wood is equal and all tools are equally sharp! Possibly so mundane its not worth mentioning. If your familiar with the basics then go ahead and jump to the section on jam chucking.

I primarily turn sculptural hollow vessels and turned wooden urns and these are the techniques I use every time I turn one of these projects. Since small opening vessels are more difficult to turn I am going to cover the basic methods for attaching Wood Lathe For Turning Large Bowls App wood to a lathe and move to less obvious mountings for shaping and turning vessel bottoms.

Mounting Wood between centers Most projects start off turning between centers, that is the wood is mounted between the head and tailstock of the lathe. The turning blanks are always out of balance and its safest to turn between centers until the blank is turned true. There are a few turning forms turned outboard or at the end of the lathe. In these cases, they are more than often mounted with a faceplate from the onset. Every lathe comes with a drive center, that is an attachment that fits in the morse taper on the headstock.

Typically, this is a 4 prong center. There are a number of other drives though — 2 prong centers in multiple sizes, multi prong centers, spur drives, etc. I primarily use a multi prong center as I most often use a paddle bit in a drill to start the mounting point.

Since I turn small opening vessels the multiprong center gives me the most flexibility as its diameter is smaller than most drive centers. Multiple teeth I find give a better bite which I find useful for spindle turning. This is the drive that I grab for turning spindles and cremation urns. My 4 prong centers are too large for this task. Tailstock live centers The tailstock is other end of mounting between centers and like headstock attachments there are a number of options for the tailstock.

Typically, there are multiple tips that fit in the live center bearing head. Most manufacturers tailstock centers are just a single point and I would suggest upgrading to a cup center of some form.

This increases the surface area on the tailstock side and is less prone to tearing away. I turn on a Nova DVR and as such I stayed with the manufacturers upgraded line of tail stock attachments. If I recall correctly I upgraded the tailstock center after the stock live center bearing went bad. Most manufacturers make similar product for their lathes. The vast majority of things I turn I use the cup center in the tailstock. The idea is to drill a pilot hole whos diameter is slightly less than the treads of the screw chuck.

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