Barry,
I assume that right up to the point where you had the "catch" your tenon
was doing it's job. It was not a question of how big the tenon was or
whether you should have used a mortise. The "problem" was the "catch. If
you intend to continue having "catches" then I suggest you get bigger jaws
for turning 10 inch bowls. If not then I suggest you analyze exactly what
caused your catch and do everything you can to avoid presenting the tool to
the wood in that fashion again. Makes more sense than getting a "Tim the
Tool Man" set of jaws for a very small bowl. IMHO of course......I could be
wrong...... ;^)

--

Regards,
M.J. (Mike) Orr
www.island.net/~morr


"Barry N. Turner" wrote in message
.. .
I went to the shop to turn a bowl. I had a dry 10" X 10" X 4" Honduras
Mahogany blank that I bought some time ago. I turned the outside shape
with
a 4" foot and a 2" tenon. I power sanded the exterior and reversed the
bowl
to hollow it. After hollowing, I intended to reverse the bowl again and
turn away the tenon, leaving a simple 4" concave foot.

I trued the rim and started to establish the wall thickness, using my new
Crown PM bowl gouge. All was going well. The bowl was hollowed about
halfway down when I got a king-sized catch and ripped the bowl from the
chuck, leaving the 3/8" X 2" tenon behind in the jaws.

The bowl is intact, except for a deep gouge in the rim, which can be
turned
away. I salvaged the tenon from the chuck jaws and carefully glued it
back
to the bottom of the bowl using medium-viscosity CA glue. I'm going to
leave it clamped overnight and try again.

Considering the ease with which I was able to rip the tenon from the bowl
made me wonder, is a 2" tenon adequate for turning a 10" diameter bowl? I
suspect that it may be on the small side. Thoughts?