Feb'05 Demo - Winged Bowls

Here Bill starts us off by showing us the finished bowl. This bowl was turned from half of a log of black mulberry. Bill explains the concept of turning a bowl and leaving the wings. He also explains the dangers of the spinning wings. As the blank rotates you have time when your chisle is not in contact with any wood. He terms this wood-no wood time. He cautions that while turning the wings you do not apply too much pressure with your gauge. You do not want the gauge to be pushed too far into the piece during the no-wood time. Bill explains that to minimize the no-wood time he turns the bowl at 1,000 RPM.

The faceplate is attached to the lathe, the tailstock center is brought up for support and the piece is turned at a high speed to reduce the interruption between the wings.

Bill begins by turning the bottom of the bowl in the usual way leaving the wings unturned. Bill stops frequently to check the shape for balance and proportion and to make a bad pun.

Bill sneaks up on the diameter of the rim above the wing, reducing the wing thickness and rim diameter with a pulling cut. The pulling cut is a 45 x 45 x 45 cut as explained in his instructional video Turned Bowls Made Easy.

Bill begins to turn the wings, usually from the center out. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT NO BODY PART CROSSES THE TOOLREST. When satisfied with the shape of the bowl Bills turns a tenon for a scroll chuck and uses a shear scraping cut to improve the transition from the bowl to the wings.

The chuck is mounted on the tenon before the faceplate is removed from the spindle to be sure the tenon size is okay

Bill trues the top and begins to shape the rim and turn the inside of the bowl.

Here Bill stops to explain how critical the size of the rim and the size of the top of the bottom bowl portion match. If one is a larger diameter than the other, the effect is lost.

Thining the wings proceeds while maintaining the diamter of the rim in line with the bottom bowl diameter.

At this point the design of the height and shape of the rim of the bowl is decided and turned. Bill's intention is to have the shape of the bowl appear to continue through the wing as if the wing were pushed over the bowl. Sometimes Bill aims for a rim height equal to the thickness of the wing; other times the rim is higher to make the wing appear to sink.

Bill now sands the inside of the bowl. He does not sand the wings while on the lathe. He again explains about the rotating wings and wood-no wood-wood and how you really do not want to have your fingers caught up in the no-wood phase. Sanding of the wings is done by hand. Bill says that the small detail sanders work well for this.

The piece is removed from the chuck and reversed according to preferred method. The piece can be held in a vacuum chuck, a jamb or friction chuck or held in the scroll chuck jaws in expansion mode. The tailstock should be brought up for support. The shape of the bottom is improved and the tenon removed or shaped to a bead.

Here is the finished winged bowl...minus sanding.

Bill leaves the natrual edge on the sides of the wings.