How to finish the foot on an uneven natural edge bowl?

Vaughn, I just took a look through your pictures again and now I've got a couple more questions!

1 - I noticed that your finished bowl had a few cracks in it. From an experience woodturner's perspective and a customer perspective, does it matter if the bowl has cracks like that? I don't mind the look of it (in fact, sometimes it looks better), but does it affect a persons perception of quality?

2 - Your bowl also had an uneven natural edge, but it looks like your finished rim is the exact same thickness everywhere. In my current bowl, the uneven rims slopes away at different angles and the edge "appears" to be thicker in spots (more bark is shown). Is this just the nature of the wood that you start with?

Thanks! It's been a cold winter up here in New Brunswick (Canada) and I'm looking forward to getting a few more projects started.

Sorry I missed these questions earlier, Dawson.

On the question about cracks, it depends on the individual piece, as well as the customer's tastes/opinions. Most of my bowls are intended to be decorative, so the cracks tpically don't affect the function. For some people, the cracks are a feature, but for others they are a flaw.

On your second question, this blank was from a large diameter tree, so the natural face was relatively flat. As a reswult, I didn't really have the differing angles along the edge that most other blanks would have.

You also asked about using a donut chuck on flat-rimmed bowls. They work great for that, although I've gotten to the point where I don't us mine very often anymore. It's just faster for me to reverse it into a friction chuck and finish it off that way. I usually just make a simple concave foot with little to no adornment, so getting the tailstock out of the way is not as vital as it would be if I was getting fancier on the bowl bottoms.

There are a couple of different adaptors for mounting a chuck on the tailstock. There is this kind, which doesn't spin:

http://www.packardwoodworks.com/Mer...ode=packard&Category_Code=lathes-acc-tlstkadp

And this kind, which screws onto the threads of a Oneway live center (or the Powermatic/Jet clone of it). Since it's attached to the live center, it can spin. No a crucial feature, but it can be handy when reversing a bowql to be ablt to turn it around to make sure it's lined up and running true...

http://www.packardwoodworks.com/Mer...ode=packard&Product_Code=112617&Category_Code=

I hope this helps -
 
That was a cool video Dan!! I won't try that on my 1014, but when the 1642 shows up...I'll have Vaughn help me...I'm skeered!!! :rofl::rofl:
 
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