Learning To Turn Better Bowls

Apparently, making bowls was more than a brief experiment for me. I've been squeezing in lots of time, this summer, practicing with new wood and refining my techniques.

Here is a Red Gum salad bowl I made for Melissa.


Walnut...


I got lucky and found an abnormally large Rose of Sharon log being thrown away.

I used it to make one of my favorite little bowls (below). I turned it green and it has really warped since. I don't mind. I love watching it dry and change shape. The wood is pure white and like plastic after polishing.

Another curb-side find was a Sweet Gum log yielding this...


My Aunt Kim got this Ambrosia Maple bowl as a gift for letting Melissa and I stay in her lake house.

My Mom and Dad got this pretty little natural edge Dogwood Tree bowl.

This Lightning Struck Poplar bowl has neat ribbon figure...



My friends, Tracey and Jeff, took down a Silver Maple and Sweet Gum tree from their yard and donated several logs to my cause. The Silver Maple turned out to be infected with ambrosia beetles and they helped to make the wood much more interesting, though most was too rotten to use. I was able to get a couple bowls from it. This one has gorgeous figure but I don't like the final shape of the bowl.


I like this bowl shape better. There are four beetle holes on the bottom of this bowl. I decided not to fill them in because I think it's neat to remember the beetles. This bowl will have to be used for something other than liquids.

I think the Sweet Gum was my favorite, though. Here is the bowl I gave Tracey as a gift for the wood.


This one went to Michelle, Melissa's sister. It was a gift because she was the first person to ask for a bowl. I really liked this one. It is a perfect little bowl shape.


I picked up a really neat Crab Apple log from Carlton McLendon's...

Much of it was rotten but I still managed to get four bowls from it.






Including my first enclosed form.


I also messed with a Bradford Pear log and got one of my favorite bowls...

Yesterday, I cut up a rotten Dogwood tree log and manged to get a really neat bowl (below). This bowl is heavier than I usually make. I really like the feel of the sturdiness. And man, that Dogwood is gorgeous wood; reds, dark browns, creamy sap wood, a touch of spalting. This may be my new favorite bowl.

Learning Bowl Turning

At art shows, I always stop at the bowl turners' booths to marvel at their mysterious and beautiful work. I've always wondered how they do it and recently I've taken a plunge into the fabulous world of face plate mounting or end grain turning.

This bowl turning stuff has really started to appeal to me. Or as Melissa puts it, I'm obsessed. After spending 6 months making my walnut coffee table (seen in previous posts), it's refreshing to know I can finish a bowl the same day I start it. Weird. Sure, it's not woodworking by most definitions, but it is working with wood, right? In fact, turning has brought me much closer to wood and I appreciate its beauty, smell, variety, movement, and texture so much more.

Here is my second bowl...made from an unknown blank I found on the clearance shelf at Highland Hardware. Cherry maybe?



Here's another...Maple. Its got some interesting holes in it, probably bored by some insect.

The shavings...you can't beat the feeling of being covered in all those warm wet shavings that fly all over you.


I'm still wasting tons of time experimenting with different styles of grinds on my tools. I have a crumby 6" grinding wheel with vibration problems. I'm also still learning how to use my tools, which tools to use, and which grind to give them.


In addition, I'm still trying to master all the basic stuff like how to safely hold my work, which speeds to use. And since my lathe is my Shopsmith, I'm also learning on a "stick shift"...nothing is rigid or solid. The Shopsmith walks all over the driveway if anything is slightly off balance. Someday I'll buy a real lathe!


Yesterday I made my first bowl good enough to become my personal salad bowl; Tulip Poplar. I put a rim that allows one to hook their thumb on it and tried the get the dimensions perfect for my nightly salads. We'll see how it does. I'm a little concerned I made it too thin for abuse.


I've always thought natural edge bowls (i.e. the bark is still attached to the edge) were impractical. After making one, I've changed my mind. It's way too cool. It allows one to really enjoy a tree long after it's gone and it still can hold stuff just as well. The most thrilling part is that I was able to turn this Oak log (found on the curb a block from my house after a storm):

into this:

Attaching the Coffee Table Doors

I'm a little behind in my posts. I attempted to attach the six coffee table doors two weeks ago and discovered I hadn't allowed enough room for the swing. The doors would open/close but they would catch on the rail above them. This was bad.


I set up the sanding disc with a coarse grit, tilted the Shopsmith table, and sanded the top back edge of the doors. Some of the doors also needed trimming on the bottom because they were catching the bottom rail. All this set me back a couple weeks because I had to refinish all the doors. The good part is, it gave me a chance to sand down the table top a second time and build the finish coats back up to a smooth glassy surface.


After the rain stopped, Melissa and I brought it in and sat it into its new home, in our family room. The final step will be to add a wax polish to the top. I guess I'll wait a couple weeks to make sure the poly has completely dried.


If my construction was done correctly, this table should withstand the seasonal humidity changes and I'll be able to watch the table top expand and pull away from the breadboard edges.

Magnetic Door Catches

Yes, I'm still putting coats of finish on the coffee table. I have about one more coat for the doors and most of the table. The table top still needs about 5 more coats. I've been sanding down the top after sets of coats, in an effort to fill the pores and defects with finish. It's nearing a flat top but I think I'm nearing boredom with it so I'm going to end far short of perfection.

Meanwhile, I finally put together the magnetic door catches. They may be cheap, but they're also easy to install and durable. I found a piece of scrap walnut already ripped to match the coffee table rails. So I cross cut 6 pieces on the chop saw. Since there isn't room to get a drill under the bottom shelf, I had to drill and attach the magnetic catches using a straight edge as a guide. The catches have some play that alows for fine adjustment. I can adjust with a stub hand screw driver when I attach the door. I plan to mount the magnetic catch blocks behind the second from bottom rail. I'll use glue and a nail gun. Melissa doesn't like the plastic magnetic catches but they'll be hidden. I don't mind them because I know how difficult other catches are to install.

First Coat of Finish

Dust-free environment. The instructions always say dust-free environment. Who the hell has these? Not me, obviously.

So instead, I swept out my garage the day before, let the dust settle, then brought my shop vac into the garage and gave the coffee table a good once over. Finally, I wiped it down with one of those special dust collector cloths.

I flipped through my copy of Bob Flexner's "Understanding Wood Finishing" book to see if Bob could talk me out of my standard, Minwax Wipe-On Poly varnish. He almost convinced me to use a two-part epoxy resin finish for the top surface. But a brief chat with my brother convinced me that the epoxy resin probably blocked moisure exchange completly, which meant unless I could coat all surfaces and joints with the stuff, I would have to be concerned with some warping some day. In the end, I picked Wipe-On Poly.


The first coat was a pain, which scares me about the rest of the coats I'll have to do. However, it was nice to see the warming effect of the varnish. I still have to put my first coat on the six doors.

Sanding Before the Finish

I always think sanding will be a quick task but it never is. I used 60 grit to get rid of saw blade marks and remove remaining sharp edges. Then I hand-sanded the whole thing with 120 grit, and then a third time with 320 grit. I know the 320 is overkill since I plan to use wiping varnish, but I didn't have any paper between 120 and 320 left and I was too lazy to go buy it.



I used blocks of wood to hold the paper for most areas. There are lots of cracks, grooves, and hard to reach places on this table. And once I started using the 320 grit, it revealed all the scratches and blemishes. I tried to back down the grits and polish most of the defects out but after about 6 hours I was sore, bored, and feeling like it was good enough for a weekend warrior, such as myself.

Ebony Plugs Sanded

After cutting the plugs with a flush saw and a little sanding, I've got my decorative, screw hole patches done. ...I'm not sure I like them. Oh well!

Ebony Plugs

I wanted to use something fun and interesting for the plugs because I knew it was a good opportunity to use a scrap. I wanted something really dark to contrast with the Walnut. The guys at the lumber yard sold me a small cut from a piece of macassar ebony for about $10. It was a steal considering macassar ebony costs about $75 per board foot, making it one of the more expensive woods one can buy. Apparently a tax recently added to the wood in India, has made this wood extremely expensive. Below is a picture of my piece. It has black and chocolate brown stripes.


I converted the Shopsmith to a drill press and used my plug cutter bit to cut several plugs. I'm sure the scrap will yield plugs for projects to come, as there is much left over.


After using my router to add a chamfer around the top perimeter of the table, I glued and tapped the plugs in with a hammer. Next week, I'll cut them flush and do some sanding. Then it will be time for my least favorite phase...applying finish.

Six Simple Doors

I finally cut the six doors. These are the doors that will conceal the bottom shelf storage area. They are just solid wood pieces. I decided making six frame and panel doors would drive me nuts (and probably be overkill). Yeah, they look a little plain. But part of my design is to use fancy external hinges to help bump up the cosmetic appeal a little.


I cut each set of three from the same plank so the grain would line up and make a continuous pattern. Those were the last cuts I'll have to make for this project. I almost feel sad.

Attaching the Top

Drilling pocket holes below the table will not be possible because the second shelf is in the way. I decided, instead, to use counter-sunk screws covered with flush-cut plugs. Each breadboard end is attached to the glued panel top with only two screws, two inches apart, in the center. Anything else would prohibit the top panel movement.

Each breadboard end will have four screws holding it down to the carcase's top rails. This, right here, is the beauty of Brek's table-top design. If these breadboard ends were simply attached to the glued panels, the breadboard ends would be much weaker. Especially with my crumby tongue and groove job. But with Brek's method, they are solid. If someone tries to move the coffee table by lifting up on them, they won't break off (hopefully).

Center Table Top Support

The ends of the top will be attached via breadboards. The long sides of the top can't really be attached to the carcase due to seasonal wood movement. That would fine until someone tries to lift the table using the top or if warping begins. It would also be nice to have a little support in the center.


I'm using my brother's technique. I made a center brace with a walnut scrap I had left over. I ran it through the jointer to square it up and cut it to length. Then I attached it via pocket holes. I also drilled and added some figure eight screws. These can screw the top down without prohibiting movement.

The trick with be drilling the pilot holes in the underside of the table top. My drill won't fit between the top and the second shelf so I'll have to carefully mark and pre-drill the holes.

Breadboard Ends

Look around. Most table tops you see today are plywood or laminate. Rarely do you see solid wood tops. Apart from being cheaper, non-solid wood tops are easy to construct because they're stable. You could just screw the top to the carcase and it would be fine.

But solid wood tops are more beautiful and interesting. They also require some fancy planning to last. This is my first attempt at a solid wood top. I decided early on I wanted to use breadboard ends to keep the top panels flat over time, to cover the end grain of the glued-up panels, and to allow the solid wood panels to expand and contract with the seasons.

It seemed the simplest way to attach the breadboards was tongue and groove, one of the few joints I can cut (with my router). It was more difficult than I imagined. The main problem was my table top was not perfectly flat (see previous post). That means, when I ran my router base over the table top, it moved up and down in waves, with the panels. Cutting the tongue involved some frustration and lots of router passes with slight adjustments. In the end, I got something I can deal with.

Coffee Table Top

I ran the glueable edges of each plank through the jointer, and glued them the same way I glued the second shelf. These pieces turned out to be more warped and uneven than the pieces I selected for the second shelf. That was the trade-off for clean looking, prettier pieces.

This time, instead of sanding the hell out of it, I decided to get out my hand plane. Of course, this also meant I had to get out the Japanese water stones my brother had given me; the water stones I pretty much destroyed by not understanding how to use. I read up on sharpening planer blades and got the best edge I could get with the stones.

I don't really understand hand planing, but after playing around with the settings on the plane, I found myself kind of liking it. Cutting the wood with a sharp blade is much more gratifying than scratching the hell out of it with a power sander. Each smooth pass with the hand plane leaves a beautiful glass-like surface trail. Now I understand why my brother said he never uses sand paper.


I spent the day rotating between planing and sharpening. In the end, I think I got a suitable top for my coffee table. Next, I'll have to cut the tongues and grooves to attach the glued planks to the breadboard ends.

Second Shelf Attachment

Yes, the second shelf appears to be attached just fine, resting on two rails and a tongue and groove. However, the shelf was a tad warped and needed to be pulled down in the center of its long spans. Also the tongues and center could use extra support.

I glued two new side rails under the tongues for support, being careful not to glue the shelf, itself, because it needed freedom to expand/contract. The center support would be tricky because I can't use glue and I need to pull the shelf centers down without prohibiting movement. I decided to use figure eight screw mounts. A forester bit made a quick slot for the figure eight...

...which must be countersunk below the bottom of the shelf.

Using pocket holes to attach the center rail, the figure eight screw mechinisms allowed me to pull the warpped areas down onto their supporting long rails, without prohibitting movement. We'll see!