End Grain Maple Calabash Bowl

Messages
687
Location
Harvey, Michigan
This Maple bowl is 10 ½” diameter x 5 ¼” high with walls at 1/16” thick. The bottom of the bowl is ¼” or slightly thicker to give the bowl some weight. Sanded to 320 and has the first of several coats of Minwax Gloss Wipe-On Poly.

Maple Calabash Bowl v1.JPG Maple Calabash Bowl v2.JPG Maple Calabash Bowl v3.JPG Maple Calabash Bowl v4.JPG Maple Calabash Bowl v5.JPG

The bowl was quite a challenge to get clean undercuts. I did hollow this in stages and that helped keep the bowl stable.

As always, your comments, critiques and opinions are welcome.

Thanks for looking! :wave:
 
Steve, yet another beautiful piece of wood that you have done proud!

I'm really going to have to get my lathe out from under the stuff that is piled on it :rolleyes::D
 
obviously I'm missing an inside joke or just clueless.. maybe and probably both.:rofl:

I like the form... still working on getting my walls down to that thickness.... after that cherry piece blew up last summer and about 1/2 the bowl hit me in the chest, I'm still a little gunshy about really thin... working on it though.
 
Measurement way off!

I went down to the shop this morning to check and see if the bowl was dry enough for a second coat. It was but in the process of handling it I thought it was WAY too heavy for a 1/4" bottom. I mean, Maple can be heavy, especially after a couple of saturation coats of oil or poly - but this was way more than I expected.

Grabbed my measuring stick and checked the bowl and was honestly shocked to find that the bottom of the bowl was not the 1/4" as reported but it was 7/8"! What the? How in the world did that happen? Well that sure accounts for the weight!

Got to thinking about it and when using a laser point system you have to watch the dot on the wood while turning. When the dot falls off the wood - you have reached your preset distance. I had the distance loosely set for 1/4" as I knew I would lose a little wood from sanding inside the bowl as well as when I removed and sanded the tenon area. What I didn't pay attention to was my viewing angle!

With the diameter of the turning, the steep angle of the bottom of the bowl - combined with my height - I was viewing everything from a skewed angle (cause I did not want my face in the line of fire) and I stopped when I thought it was about 5/16" thick instead of having the laser dot fall off the turning. I should have stopped turning and just used the laser to take a static measure of remaining depth - which I normally do on hollow forms! Nope - I knew what I was doing! Yeah.... right!
redface.gif


So - now I either accept that I have a heavier than anticipated bowl or figure a way to get it centered on the vac chuck and turn it down to where it should be! Ah........ the pressure!

Vaughn - nice looking bowl! But I have to point out 2 things - you get to be the brother played by Danny Devito and mine is bigger by 1/2". :D I do think your bowl has a lot of character and the contrast of the dye work with the exterior of the bowl works well!

Chuck - Jeff has turned some great looking yet seriously thick bowls!
 
If anytime I take the plunge to the spinny vortex Steve, you and your pieces will have part of the blame, together with some other great stuff from other turners fro this forum:thumb::thumb::thumb:
 
Evenin' Steve. Beautiful piece!

If you want to thin out the bottom, can you mount it, carefully, on a set of Jumbo jaws inside the lip and reshape the bottom curve a little, while removing 3/8" from the bottom?

Also, a dumb question. What makes it a Calabash Bowl?

Bruce
 
Steve that is great bowl. Have to say I did not read the heading properly and was thinking all along "Wow Steve actually turned the bottom of a calabash. How did he manage it when its so thin." Then i went back and read maple.:)

For what its worth i would not touch the base. It strikes me that the thicker heavier base would add stability to a thin edge bowl like that. Would stay put when its being used or displayed.
 
Thanks everyone - I appreciate all the kind words!

Bruce - calabash is just the name of a style of bowl with the rim curved back into the bowl. Well - that's my understanding.

I went down to the shop today to put some more poly on the bowl and was disgusted with the overall weight of the thing. Hooked up the vacuum chuck and removed somewhere around 1/4" to 3/8" from the inside of the bowl. I was happy with the external curve and didn't want to mess with that. Everything sanded up nice - so put a couple coats of poly on it. Feels lots better and was worth the risk of re-turning!
 
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