The Woodworker & Woodturner – August 2019

http://www.getwoodworking.com August 2019 The Woodworker & Good Woodworking 87

9 The perfectly formed spigot, which will be removed

at the end of the project. The flat area is the base

that the bowl will sit on and will be located on

the top of the jaws; this will make the fixing much

stronger when it comes to hollowing out the bowl

8 The bowl will have a top that curves in; this shape

can take some practice to master but these two

lines help immensely. Keeping the flat there as long

as possible means I can merge the curves together

at the end

5 To ensure your tool is being presented in the best

way possible, try cutting the wood manually by first

rotating the blank against the cutting edge. If the tool

angle is correct, you should create a nice curly shaving

2 This piece of plastic has definitely seen better

days and is available from Craft Supplies USA;

it offers the simplest way of finding the centre

of a disc

6 The easiest way to mark out the diameter of the

chuck spigot is to use a pair of dividers set to the

diameter of the jaws: the right-hand point is used

to scratch a groove that will line up with the other

right-hand point

3 As normal with a blank this size, I’m going to hold

the bowl on a screw chuck. After drilling a hole, I like

to put some paste wax in the hole so the woodworm

screw cuts a good thread and holds the bowl firmly

against the front of the jaws

7 If you want to get the strongest and most accurate
grip, the dovetail angle on the spigot is critical.
I normally guess but it is fun to see how accurate
I am by measuring with a protractor

4 Sharpening is seen to be a dark art by many

woodturners, but most of the guesswork can be

removed with the aid of a good quality sharpening

system, such as the Tormek jigs I’m using here.

In this case, I have them mounted on a dry grinder

with a CBN wheel

1 The piece of air-dried ash I’m using here measures

200 × 100mm. It does have a split, but I should be

able to remove that when it comes to shaping the

outside, as long as I remember to mount it on the

lathe the right way round