Making a woodturning bowl can be very rewarding, but it can also be difficult for beginners who don't know how to proceed. If you are one of them, you can refer to this guide and make a beautiful wooden bowl.
Now, follow us and learn the comprehensive steps to make a woodturning bowl. We will also show you what are the best wood and the best tools to make a woodturning bowl.
What Is the Best Wood for a Turning Bowl?
Before turning a wooden bowl, it is essential to select the right wood. The quality of the wood determines the quality of the bowl. It is better to use harder and denser woods, such as cherry and oak. This type of wood is more tightly arranged, easier to work with in the turning process, and the finished wooden bowl will last longer. At the same time, the wood should be fully dry and the moisture content should not exceed 10%.
Read more: Types of Wood: Choosing the Ideal for Your Woodworking Project
What Are the Best Tools for a Turning Bowl?
1. Lathe:
Since the whole process needs to last for a certain period, having a lathe with a strong enough motor is important. It doesn’t need to be too big, 8 inches or more will be enough for you to make a wooden bowl. The lathe should also be equipped with a suitable chuck to hold the material, such as a four-jaw tip chuck or a threaded chuck.
2. Lathe tools:
- Roughing gouge: It is used for roughening, i.e. removing the outermost part to obtain the outer contour of the bowl. The sharpness and strength of the blade should be taken into account when choosing a rougher, as the blade tends to be subjected to great impacts during the roughing process.
- Bowl gouge: As the name implies, it is specially designed to process the curvature of the “bowl shape”. Its unique curved angle can accurately process the internal curvature of the woodturning bowl.
- Round scraper: It can further modify the contour shape of the processed bowl to achieve the desired final shape.
- V groove caring router bit: It comes in handy when you want to add some lines to the outer contour of the woodturning bowl.
- Parting tool: It can split the bottom support of the reserved wooden bowl from its body in the final step.
3. Sandpaper:
It allows you to get a smooth and fine surface of the wooden bowl. You need to prepare sandpaper of different grits, ranging from 80 to 600 grits depending on the level of smoothness you want to achieve in the end.
4. Surface material:
Finishing the bowl with a surface material can change the physical imperfections of the wood. Wax, for example, improves the wood's susceptibility to moisture and accentuates the wood's grain to some extent. You can also select a polyurethane material to improve the abrasion resistance of the wood surface and to make the surface more glossy.
5. Protective equipment:
The speed of the lathe for home use usually ranges from 800 to 4000rpm, please always pay attention to your safety during the operation process. Therefore, wearing suitable protective equipment such as goggles and a face mask can effectively avoid wood chip splashing.
Step by Step Guide to Make a Wooden Bowl
Before you start to make a woodturning bowl, please do remember to put your goggles and face shield on to keep your eyes and face safe. When the tools and materials you need are all prepared, let's turn your own wooden bowl with our step-by-step guide.
Step 1: Prepping the Wood Blank
First, you need to machine the prepared wood to match the dimensions of the wooden bowl you want (as cylindrical as possible, which reduces the amount of work involved in the subsequent lathe process). Cut the ends as flat and parallel as possible.
Step 2: Setting the Blank on the Chuck
Use some auxiliary tools to find the center of the blank, and then set it onto the lathe (if you use a threaded chuck, make sure to drill the threads into the wood blank to a sufficient depth; if you use a four-jaw chuck, choose the right size to ensure the stability of the wood blank).
When installing, make sure the center of the wood and the axis of the spindle are on the same level. After the installation is complete, you can manually rotate the lathe spindle quickly and check whether you set the wood blank stably.
Step 3: Roughing the Wood Blank
Roughing should be started at a lower speed. First, you should move the roughing gouge slowly from the outermost edge to the center and generally control the depth of each cut within 2.5mm. The blade should be at an angle to the axial direction of the wood blank, which can effectively avoid uneven and discontinuous wood chips.
You also need to pay attention to the grain of the wood itself, as far as possible along the direction of the grain when turning, so that you can better deal with the surface obtained after processing.
Step 4: Hollowing the Bowl
After roughing the outside of the bowl, you should machine the shape of the concave part of the wooden bowl by using a bowl gouge. The blade starts from the center point and slowly expands from the inside to the outside until it hollows out the inside of the wooden blank to get a smoother inner wall.
During the turning process, please keep the thickness of the wall uniform throughout the bowl, generally not less than 5mm. In addition, the rotation speed of the lathe can be slightly down when encountering wood with scabs.
Step 5: Refining the Bowl
After hollowing out the interior, you will have the rough shape of the wooden bowl. Next, use a round scraper to give the inside and outside walls a more detailed finish. You should control the hand force, and keep the contact between the blade and the bowl wall as small as possible to avoid damaging the original shape. The speed can be increased slightly to get a finer surface.
Step 6: Splitting the Bowl and Sanding
Then, you can use a parting tool or a hand saw to split the bowl from the blank. At this time, there will still be a slight knife mark on the surface of the separated woodturning bowl, and its bottom will still have traces of the attached wood blank.
To achieve an ideal look, a final sanding with sandpaper is necessary. Similar to the turning process, start with a low grit sandpaper for rough sanding, and then continue to optimize with higher grits in order.
You can also do the sanding step while the bowl is still on the lathe and then split it.
Step 7: Wood Finishing
After all these operations, you will get a smooth wooden bowl. To prolong its lifespan and make it more shiny, you can choose wax oil, polyurethane, or other materials to apply evenly on the bowl surface.
Let’s take wood wax oil as an example. First, use a clean cotton cloth soaked in wood wax oil when applying, and do it slowly and evenly. After the bowl is fully covered with oil, leave it for a while and then wipe off the excess oil with a clean cotton cloth. Next, repeat the previous operation to let the oil fully penetrate. Once the finish is cured (it takes a few days to fully cure), a perfect woodturning bowl is presented, and then you can use it!
If you still have some problems about the processes, please watch the video above. You can share this post on your social media or your friends if you find it helpful and interesting. Appreciate your time.
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