The Woodworker & Woodturner – August 2019

TURNING Yarn bowl

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

33 Another pearl of wisdom passed on to me is that

you need to stop one cut before it falls off. Take off as

much as you dare as it means you’ll have much less

hand finishing to do later

30 Now the bowl is pretty much finished all that’s

left to do is to remove the spigot and polish the bowl.

The easiest way to remove the spigot is to friction

drive between centres. Here I’m using my vacuum

chuck but without the vacuum attached

34 After removing the timber, I sand the base using
a 50mm sanding pad mounted in a drill press or on
the lathe. Work your way through the grits as normal
to leave a perfect finish

31 Using a small tool means you’ll only get a small
dig-in if it goes wrong; this was taught to me years
ago and it’s still relevant. You don’t want to have
a big catch at the end of the project

28 The cylinder cutter is just about the right width
for the top part of the slot. Small cuts are best
as you encounter less vibration, which will mean
less sanding

35 I thought long and hard about what type of finish I

wanted to put on the piece as it needed to be durable

and obviously not mark the yarn in any way. I settled

on a sanding sealer and satin lacquer finish as I find

that ash isn’t generally suited to a high gloss patina

36 The completed yarn bowl in ash should look

something like this

32 Make sure that the area on the bottom is slightly

concave; this allows the bowl to sit on the outer

diameter and not rock. If you are unsure how much

wood you have left in the base, you can take it off

the lathe and check – you should be able to remount

it easily enough

29 The bowl needs to have really smooth edges and

there is no substitute for doing it carefully by hand.

Starting with 180 grit, I work the abrasive back and

forth so I round over the edges, meaning the yarn

will not get caught up or frayed