On Sep 13, 7:38*pm, "Marty G" wrote:
Ok the Wife SWMBO want me to turn a large bowl for popcorn for xmas, Since
Ike missed central Texas there is no big trees down around here and even if
I could score the logs they woulnd not be dry until next year. *Does anyone
know where I can find a 12x12x12 or 14 blank of a fairly soft wood. *I am
only a soso intermediate turner and don't want to try it with purpleheart or
Narda.

TIA
Marty

Hello Marty,

You've had some good advice, but the simplest way to get a bowl of the
size you want is to make a bowl from a flat board. If you can't get a
flat board wide enough, laminate two pieces together to make a 12" x
12" board or a 14" x 14" board. Make sure it is nice and flat. Mark
diagonal lines on both sides of the board, plus one vertical line from
the center to the outside dege on both sides. Mount a piece of plywood
about 3/4" thick on a faceplate that is as big around as your board is
square. Saw your board round on the band saw or by some other means.
Mount your faceplate with the plywood disk on the lathe. Turn the face
of it true with the lathe if necessary. Now, jam your piece for the
bowl between the plywood disk and a live cup center in the tailstock
(a Oneway live center, a StebCenter live center, or a Nova Live Center
will all work). Now decide how large you want the foot of the bowl to
be, it should be about 1/3 to 1/4 of the diameter for good stability.
Draw a circle of this diameter on the wooden disk.

Now, take one of those pieces you cut off when making the blank round
to use as a space marker. Starting with the foot diameter circle, use
the piece of wood to make marks and circles out from the foot circle.
Scratch out the foot circle. Now put a mark on your tool rest at a 45
degree angle. This angle needs to be headed towards the center point
of the spindle. Now, line up that angle line on the tool rest with the
outer circle and place the tool rest as close to the wood as possible
without hitting it. At the outer circle, take a thin parting tool (I
find the thin fluted parting tool made by Robert Sorby to be best for
this, but others will work) and aligning it with the 45 degree angle
mark on the tool rest part off the outer ring. You can stop and remove
the ring or let it set there and spin with the wood while you cut the
next ring. Do this until all rings have been cut except the foot
diameter ring.

Remove the rings from the lathe and reverse stack them. Sand off any
rough edges or tea rout. Use Titebond II or III and glue the pieces
together starting with the largest ring on the bottom. Do this as
quickly as possible making sure each of the pieces is as centered as
possible. Now, clamp the assembly between the tailstock center and the
backing board on the faceplate. Tighten down the tailstock until glue
squeezes our around the rings. I generally like to add one more piece
to the foot before clamping the assembly on the lathe. That extra
piece is a waste block for either screwing a faceplate to or to grip
with your chuck.

The next day after the glue has had an opportunity to set up mount the
bowl blank on the lathe. It is ready to final turn, sand, and finish.
The bow walls will be fairly steep and you don't have a lot of
flexibility for shaping. Actually, if you got these things cut exactly
right and assembled on center, you might just be able to power sand
the bowl to finished shape. I've always turned them, but if your skill
level is not great sanding might be a good solution for you.

I've made a lot of bowls this way and find it an economical way to use
up flat wood.

Good Luck,

Fred Holder
http://www.morewoodturning.net