Turning an Ash Bowl

Woodturning

Guest editor Pat Carroll makes a three-sided bow

Textured and smooth decorative bowls side by side

Textured ceramic bowl with geometric design and feet.

This project was inspired by Australian woodturner Guilio Marcolongo. I have been a fan of Guilio’s work for a long time. I finally got an opportunity to meet with him and watch him demonstrate on a recent visit to Australia. I was really impressed with the versatility of his Vermec chuck.

After obtaining a chuck I thought I would give Guilio’s three-sided bowl a go. Of course, these projects can be done without the expense of buying additional chucks. But this chuck gave me accuracy and repetitiveness when relocating the orientation of the piece. I have the option to offset the chuck in increments up to 30mm. I can also independently change the degrees of the piece. In this case I went for altering the piece by 120° at a time, which gave the three sides.

When I turned a few of these pieces I wanted to add another element. So with some carving, pyrography and colour, the piece pictured was the end result. The one thing my additional carving caused to happen was for the rim of the bowl to seem round. But overall it was a fun piece to make and raises several options for future pieces.

Plans & Equipment

Tools & equipment

PPE & RPE as appropriate
4mm parting tool
12mm spindle gouge
16mm bowl gouge
25mm round-nose negative rake scraper
Rubber sanding block
Sandpaper
10mm steb centre
Vermec chuck
Rotary tools
Spirit stain
Chroma craft Celtic copper
Chroma craft verdigris

Materials

Ash 150mm diameter x 100mm deep

Plan Download

The making

Woodwork tools with wooden log on workbench. — 1. First and foremost, all PPE (personal protection equipment) was checked to be in perfect working order. I ensured I had a clean visor and dust mask, the lathe working correctly with all components clean and tools sharpened. The wood chosen was ash, which was not completely dry. The wood is in side- grain orientation. There is no reason that this piece cannot be made in spindle orientation. The wood was harvested approximately three years ago and coated in wax to help stop it cracking. I find this a very successful way to seal wood

Machining tool on a wooden base in workshop. — 2. A 7mm hole was drilled into the surface of the blank and then the wood was screwed on to the chuck. Always take note of the depth drilled and length of screw chuck. In this case it did not matter as the centre was going to be removed. This chuck allows for two additional screws to further secure the wood

Wood being turned on a lathe in workshop. — 3. With the tailstock in place for additional support, I used a 16mm bowl gouge to true up the piece. Once the wax was removed, I examined the surface for any defects masked by the wax

Woodturning process with spinning lathe and tool — 4. Using the same 16mm bowl gouge, I trued up the base of the piece. I needed a clean surface to mark out the three sides of the bowl

Woodturning tool beside a wooden cylinder on lathe. — 5. Once the face of the piece was trued up, I put some masking tape on the toolrest. I marked the outside of the piece on the masking tape. Then, using the offset part of the chuck, I offset the piece by 10mm and marked an arc on the surface using my line on the masking tape as a reference mark. Using the facility built into the chuck, I altered the degrees by 120° two more times to mark the three different arcs

Wooden log with marked circles and arrows — 6. The next job was to clearly mark where the lines intersect. I used dividers to check the spacings were equal

Wood lathe turning process close-up. — 7. Using a toolrest to keep the lines straight, I marked the side of the piece and also transferred the lines to the top for reference

Wood turning on a lathe in workshop. — 8. The chuck is set to 10mm offset and the degrees are at the 0 indicator mark for the first side to be turned. The tailstock is used for additional support during the offset 7 turning. Normally on side grain we work from smallest to largest diameter as this favours a cleaner cut. For the initial shaping I worked from the largest to the smallest diameter. I ensured the 16mm bowl gouge was very sharp at all times

Wood being turned in a metal lathe. — 9. I had to be careful and monitor the lines so that I didn’t cut too much off any one side. The process was repeated on 120° and 240°. I had to tweak the sides to get the lines straight on the side. Very little caused an imbalance in the design. The mechanical chuck made it very easy to realign the piece back to the correct positions

Handcrafted wooden bowl on grey background. — **10A/B.** With the three sides turned I sanded them, hollowed the inside and the result was an interesting piece. But I wanted to take it further and do some enhancement on the outside

Wooden bowl with visible grain pattern — **10 B**.

Wood lathe turning wooden bowl in workshop. — **11.** After going through the previous steps again, I was at the stage of sanding almost complete. There was no need to go to a super- smooth finish for the embellishing I had in mind. I marked out each corner for what would be the relief carved legs of the piece

Carving a wooden bowl with rotary tool. — **12.** Using a rotary carving burr, I removed the wood at either side of the proposed leg. Using full respiratory protection and with dust collection in place, I carefully power carved away the excess wood

Wooden object being shaped with hand tool — **13.** For further refinement of the shape I used my wood rasps to complete this part of the job

Close-up of a wooden sphere with patterns. — **14.** Even though the surface was to be embellished, I sanded it with 120, 180 and 240 grit sandpaper to help refine the shape further while I had easy access to these areas

Wood lathe with round wooden block. — **15.** With a tenon cut on the base, I turned my attention to the hollowing. What has become noticeable is that the three facets are not as evident because of the relief carving for the legs

Woodturning on a lathe with woodworking tool — **16.** I marked out the rim of the bowl so I had a reference line to work to. Working in small increments, I removed the interior of the piece, working from the rim to the centre until I got to the desired depth

Woodturning on a lathe with carving tool. — **17.** To refine the inside of the bowl I used a 19mm round-nose negative rake scraper. Light passes achieved a good surface

Wood turning on a lathe machine — **18.** To sand the inside I used a 50mm arbor which had a soft, flexible pad and a long extension to get the arbor to the base of the bowl. I started sanding at 120 grit, working through 180, 240, 320 up to 400 grit

Wood piece in lathe chuck. — **19.** To finish the bottom I needed to make a jam chuck. I used a scrap piece of wood and made a suitably sized tenon to match the inside of the bowl

Woodturning lathe carving a wooden piece. — **20.** With the piece secured on the jam chuck by tailstock support, I used a 12.5mm spindle gouge to remove some of the excess wood. As there was a lot of carving I didn’t push my luck by trying to get the tool into awkward angles

Woodturning on a lathe with sanding tool. — **21.** Using the same burr as before, I carved away as much as possible while I still had the piece fixed in the lathe. The lathe acted as a vice, holding the piece in place

Woodworking with file on sphere in clamp — **22.** Once the bulk was removed with the burr, the refining was started with the larger rasp. It was further refined with a smaller rasp which took away the coarser marks of the larger one

Wood sanding with orbital sander tool close-up. — **23.** The rubber sanding block finished the shaping and left a good surface for the texture. It would have received a lot more sanding had the design called for a smooth finish

Hand burning design on wooden bowl with tool

24. With fume extraction in place it was time to start the pyrography, I used a pyrography pen with a skew tip to form the lines. The first line was straight down the centre. Then the outer lines were angled freehand for a more rustic look