Going To Be A Biggy .

As I have mentioned before, big bowls do not sell near as good as smaller ones in my area but I do like to keep one or two big ones on hand at all times .

The laminated board for this one was 12" x 12"

Here it is with the rings right off the RM and glued up and in the press .






Then I got to wondering if my Rikon lathe that is advertised as a twelve inch one is indeed a full 12 " so I mounted it on the lathe and low and behold I was able to slip a piece of 1/16 " thick slat of wood between the bowl and the bed of the lathe .

I think with this big boy I will let the glue cure at least overnight before I start sanding it . I have been known to start sanding after only a few hours of glue up but not this time .

Pretty nifty, Bill. I like that pattern and that's an interesting mounting method. It seems like it leaves a hole in the bottom you have to plug. Is that right?

Ted Calver said:

Pretty nifty, Bill. I like that pattern and that's an interesting mounting method. It seems like it leaves a hole in the bottom you have to plug. Is that right?

Click to expand...

Yes Ted , the rings are cut from a single flat board on the Ringmaster Lathe which requires a 1/2" hole to mount the board for cutting the rings . The hole gets plugged wit a matching piece of the same wood or a totally different color as a contrast. Sometime I even go a few steps farther and put a solid one piece bottom on them .

Bill,

I wrote a response to this. When I clicked the button to send, I got an error message that apologized for not responding.

Anyway, I will try again. First of all I said that the bowl looked like a lot of work and a lot of fun.

There is an interesting phenomenon that will probably work with your bowl while it is still on the lathe. Turn off your fluorescent lamps and use an incandescent lamp to look at the inside of the bowl. Start the lathe and try different speeds. You will probably see rings of color, which will vary as the lathe speed varies.

I am impressed with your versatility and skill.

Welcome to the Family and Enjoy,
JimB

With the size and pattern should be a great seller.

Les

So this bowl is from one board that is cut at a specific angle (35 or 55?) and then the rings are stacked? That is how I would prefer my students to have their bowls fastened to the school lathes! Very nice design.

This is the big 12" one that was shown earlier with the rings only cut and glued together but not sanded yet.

Now it is all sanded down to 400 grit followed by 0000 steel wool and four coats of wipe on poly applied .

That's a beautiful bowl

I like that a lot Bill ... Rikon? do you still have your 18 x 47 lathe?

Ron Hossack said:

I like that a lot Bill ... Rikon? do you still have your 18 x 47 lathe?

Click to expand...

No Ron, I sold the 18 x 47 in a major downsizing I did when living on the mountains side . Then this January I moved to town where there was no shop at all and not much room to build one. So I built a Micro Shop this spring as soon as the snow was pretty well all gone .

I had put topics of every step of building it in my Woodworking Friends site at the time . It is just a little over 90 square feet on the inside .

Here is a video of it just after I got my "stuff" into it .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaJBVKdMVnw

William Young said:

No Ron, I sold the 18 x 47 in a major downsizing I did when living on the mountains side .

Click to expand...

Missed this message

I just got an 18x47 delivered to a friends shop in ID and it'll be coming home soon ... I need to do some minor changes/upgrades first.

1 - Bore the Banjo out to 1" to accept standard tool posts.

2 - figure out what I want to do for a handwheel on the headstock

3 - add one of my friends articulating arms

4 - put casters on it to move it around

Ron Hossack said:

Missed this message

I just got an 18x47 delivered to a friends shop in ID and it'll be coming home soon ... I need to do some minor changes/upgrades first.

1 - Bore the Banjo out to 1" to accept standard tool posts.

2 - figure out what I want to do for a handwheel on the headstock

3 - add one of my friends articulating arms

4 - put casters on it to move it around

Click to expand...

Are you in Idaho ? What part ? We go shopping in Sandpoint at least once a month and sometimes twice .
Everything cost so much less there than six miles north of the border where I live .

You are going to put casters on a 18 x 47 ? Wow, They had better be big ones with good bearings and on a concrete floor . That is one heavy sucker of a lathe.

I made a hand wheel for mine . There were multi page topics on my own Woodworking Friends site about it back then . That was a while back so might have to do some back tracking to find it. I "think" I might have done a tutorial on it but don't quote me on that .

Hey Bill,
Love the color pattern on the bowl... You didn't answer Jonathon's question about the angle the RM cuts... what angle do you use and how wide are the rings. I don't have a ringmaster and no plans to acquire, but I read an article some where about cutting half rings on a band saw to do bowls similar to yours... probably won't be as sophisticated as yours, but might be a fun project sometime.

Love your "chain saw." It will keep me chuckling for the rest of the day.

Enjoy,
JimB

Jonathan Shively said:

So this bowl is from one board that is cut at a specific angle (35 or 55?) and then the rings are stacked? That is how I would prefer my students to have their bowls fastened to the school lathes! Very nice design.

Click to expand...

Thickness of the laminated board was 0.697 thou and cutting angle for the RM setup was 1.614 measured with digital calipers . The thickness of the rings were 5/16 when cut before sanding so a little less than 1/4" after sanding . Of course when working within those tolerances , any thickness of the board has to measured in thousands of an inch and the angle has to be set accordingly in order for them to stack up perfectly because there is no lathe tools involved with making them smooth . Only sandpaper . Takes about 5 to 10 minutes to cut the rings for an entire bowl depending on size. About the same time to glue them into a bowl and about the same time to sand them smooth . It is all shown in the videos.

I have made bowls from boards on band saw and on scroll saw before getting my RM . At least ten bowls can be made with the RM in the same time as one with either of those methods.

I have a whole board in my Woodworking Friends site Called Ringmaster Lathe Turning and it is usually the busiest board in my site because it has more information about making bowls on a RM than any other site anywhere. I also have made a whole bunch of videos about every step of making RM bowls and vessels in my Wood Turning Videos board .

William Young said:

Are you in Idaho ? What part ? We go shopping in Sandpoint at least once a month and sometimes twice .
Everything cost so much less there than six miles north of the border where I live .

Click to expand...

No ... I live in Liberty Lake, WA and I work in Couer d'Alene ID. Lathe is ata friends in Rathdrum, ID

You are going to put casters on a 18 x 47 ? Wow, They had better be big ones with good bearings and on a concrete floor . That is one heavy sucker of a lathe.

Click to expand...

They are rated at 1000lbs each ...Swivel Leveling Plate Casters with 2" Hard Resin Wheel and Retractable Leg, 1000 lbs Per Caster

I made a hand wheel for mine . There were multi page topics on my own Woodworking Friends site about it back then . That was a while back so might have to do some back tracking to find it. I "think" I might have done a tutorial on it but don't quote me on that .

Click to expand...

I think I remember you and some aussies chatting about this ... I'll see if I can do a search and find your tutorial

Oh yeah . . .those casters should handle it all right . .
There sure is a lot of heavy cast iron in that lathe. I just about strained my milk unpacking mine and setting it up . .
I was determined I was going to do it myself piece by piece like I normally would but had to call on a neighbor to help with some of it . Of course being ancient like I am didn't help any . Everything seems heavier than it used to .