DIY Network

The Wooden Bowl Jimmy DiResta offers a demonstration of the basics of woodturning, creating a wooden bowl on a lathe.

	Before: Jimmy glues several wooden discs to form a single wood cylinder. The bowl will be "turned" from this single piece using the lathe.
	After: The finished bowl.

After gluing together several piece of wood, Jimmy DiResta forms one solid block of wood, then sketches and cuts out the shape of the wooden bowl by using the band saw. Next Jimmy attaches the large circle of wood onto a lathe where he will cut out the interior of the bowl. Once the bowl is the perfect shape, Jimmy sands it and gives it a final coat of wax for shine.

Below is a summary of steps as seen in this Hammered project, as well as a list of materials and tools used.

Materials and tools:

wood (pine)
chop saw
lathe
wood glue
clamps
band saw
large and small gouges (chisels)
butcher’s wax
rags
sandpaper (both heavy and fine grit)

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Steps:

1. First cut and glue together several circular-cut pieces of wood to create a solid cylindrical block of wood. As you glue, crisscross the grain of the wood for strength, then glue the pieces together to form the solid block.

2. Clamp the block of wood, and let the glue dry completely.

3. The next step is to draw a circle on the wood for the basic shape of our bowl, then cut out the shape using the band saw.

4. Attach the mounting plate to circular block so that it can then be attached to the lathe. We begin turning the bowl using the large gouge to remove a large amount of excess material.

5. Weuse a smaller chisel for the interior of the bowl, working systematically from the center out removing the excess wood.

6. Once we’re happy with the shape of our bowl, we use sandpaper while bowl is still on the lathe. We’ll start with a thick grit sandpaper, and work our way down to a finer grit for a smooth finish.

7. Finally apply some butcher’s wax, while the bowl spins on the lathe, for a finished shine.