Finally got back on my lathe.  When my daughter saw this fruit bowl I had made for my wife, which I posted on back in October, she wanted something similar.

This is what I came up with for her.  It started out as four pieces of 8/4 poplar.  I edge glued two pieces together, then edge glued the other two pieces together, then face glued those two chunks together to make a big blank.  I wanted to try my hand at making a bowl that was pretty much at the maximum diameter allowed for my lathe.  With that heavy of a blank, I was a little wary of it flying off the chuck.  I screwed on a face plate and turned the bottom and the chuck mortise, then mounted it on the chuck, and turned the inside very gently until I had removed some of the weight.  Finishing was a coat of Bullseye Sealcoat sanding sealer, followed by a coat of amber shellac, and then three coats of spray lacquer.  I haven't given it to her yet; I hope she likes it.  I turned it with a combination of Easy Wood Tools, and a traditional 3/8" bowl gouge I purchased from a gentleman on this site.  This is my fourth bowl.

 

Thanks for looking.

Looks good Tom.  I think dad is going to get a big hug.

 

nice..

I really like the accent...

Great Work! Poplar isn't so easy to turn- gives you lots of fuzzies on the surface. You did a super job!

1 hour ago, Stick486 said:

I really like the accent...

If you're talking about the green stripe on the first bowl, yeah, that turned out OK, but it was a pain at first.  I was using a paint pen from  Hobby Lobby.  I thought I could just hold the pen up to the bowl and run it at the lowest speed.  Unfortunately, the tip of the pen was one of those fiber tips that had to be depressed into the pen to get the paint to flow.  That didn't work so good with the bowl spinning in the lathe.  Next try was to daub some paint on the bowl with it not spinning, turn on the lathe, and smooth it out with the pen tip.  After cleaning the green paint off my face shield, I gave up on the idea of doing it with the bowl spinning.  I didn't try anything like that on the second bowl in this post, just left it plain.  Thanks for the compliment.

That turned out pretty darn nice. Lew already said it but kiln dried poplar isn't that easy to turn. I'm sure your daughter is going to be very pleased!

 

Steve

 

#4?!

 

looks awesome.

 

i just turned one myself this PM, large chunk of pine.  has some cracks and defects (rustic is my excuse), coat of poly curing now.  stay tuned.

 

your's looks better.

 

4 hours ago, lew said:

Poplar isn't so easy to turn- gives you lots of fuzzies on the surface

Actually, I think that worked to my advantage.  When the wood started fuzzing, I would sharpen my bowl gouge.  That really brought home the value of sharp tools.  I didn't have that problem so much with the EWTs, but I am trying to learn how to use both kinds.

Keep at it , learning makes things easier. For coloring a line try artists style pens with a brush like tip. Like This

Thanks Gerald.  I will try that next time.  And thanks everyone for the compliments.

Just now seeing this....my recommendation is you better start gluing up some more blanks

I don't think this will be the only one your daughter will be asking for Tom.

Well done!