DIY Network

Wood-Turned Bowl: Shaping the Bowl's Inside From "Wood Works" episode WWK-605

	David Marks uses a super-flute bowl gouge to hollow out the interior of the wooden bowl made from solid claro-walnut.
	When wood-turning, a face shield protects your face and eyes from flying wood chips.

In this episode of Wood Works, David Marks turns a bowl from a solid piece of claro walnut. In this segment, work begins on hollowing out the inside of the bowl.

Materials used in this episode:

Claro walnut stock
MDF for templates and mockup
Oliver lathe and related accessories
Wood-turning gouges and tools
Band saw
Pneumatic sander
Cordless drill; screwdriver attachment
Circle template
Straight-edge
Carpenter's pencil
Cyanoacrylate glue
Wood screws
Protective clothing and gloves
Face shield
Protective clothing
Leg gaiters

Safety Alert: Always wear safety goggles or safety glasses, and follow proper safety precautions, when working with wood, power-tools, lathes, saws, drills, routers, etc.

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Figure A

Shaping the Bowl's Inside

With the wooden blank cut to a cylinder, and the outside-profile shaping done, work can now begin on hollowing out then inside of the wooden bowl.

• Set the tool-rest parallel to, and about 1/2" away from the face surface (figure A).
  

  	Figure B
  	Figure C

  
  

• Work begins using a super-flute bowl gouge. Introduce the tip of the gouge to the stock surface with the flute on its side. As you feed it in, rotate the flute so that it is at a 45-degree angle to the tool-rest. This produces a shear cut to remove the bulk of the wood. Cut with the grain by working from the large diameter to the small diameter (figure B). As you hollow out the bowl, the bevel of the gouge rubs as the flute faces outwards. The term for this technique is "rubbing the bevel." Avoid forcing the edge of the tool into the wood or taking too deep of a cut. If you find the hard-to-define "sweet spot," the tool should feel like it's gliding through the wood.

  
  

• Gradually widen the bowl (figure C) with a series of arcing cuts, each starting further from the center than the prior one.
  

  	Figure D
  	Figure E

  
  

• Along the way, continue to measure for depth (figure D).
  
  
• Eventually you'll find that the gouge extends too far in, and you lose your leverage. At that point, switch out the straight tool-rest with a curved bowl-rest that allows the cutting tip to extend deeper into the stock while still being supported (figure E). Continue making a series of shear cuts to hollow out the inside.

• As you get closer to the edge with the bowl gouge. So switch to a parting tool to cut a rabbet into the rim. This serves two purposes: (1) It establishes the thickness of the wall; (2) It provides a groove for the bowl gouge to track.
  

  
  

• Switch back to the flute and orient it so that the gouge is tilted to 45 degrees and the flute faces outwards (figure F). Make a series of shear cuts to the center.

• A double-ended caliper can be used to gauge how much wood still needs to be hollowed out (figure G).

• Now you can switch to a 1-inch dome-scraper to remove the waste toward the center and refine the inner curve until it is complete.

  Figure F

  Figure G

  
  

  
  

• Now, using 60-grit sandpaper, sand the inside surface to remove any tool marks (figure H).

• Then using a pneumatic sander (figure I), sand the interior to 320-grit to make the surface smooth to the touch.

  Figure H

  Figure I

  
  

  
  

• For the foot of the bowl, first use a parting tool to get access to the base, separating the bowl from the sacrificial block (figure J) and leaving a small nub (figure K)

  Figure J

  Figure K

  
  

  
  

• Using a spigot chuck, remount the bowl on the lathe. The spigot chuck (figure L) is essentially a cylindrical block of wood mounted to a faceplate with a piece of leather on its nose-end to protect the inside of the bowl.

• Slide the bowl over the spigot, and hold it in place using the tail-stock against the nub (figure M).

  Figure L

  Figure M

  
  

  
  

• Once the tool-rest is set, define the foot of the bowl using the bowl-gouge (figure N) and parting tool.

• Then sand the foot with 120-grit sandpaper (figure O).

• Finally, simply chisel off the poplar nub and hand-scrape the bottom of the bowl to prepare it for the wood finish.

  Figure N

  Figure O