Birch Bowls

[AndrewB]

I'm not sure if this is the right way of doing things but the birch bowl that I started working on yesterday.... I started hollowing out today.  I took the outside walls down all the way to about an 1/4th an inch or thinner.  I still need to hollow out the bottom I've still got about an inch of material left to work with.  I wont be taking it too much deeper because of the risk of blow through.  Not sure if this was wise or I should have left a little more material in the long run or not.  But hopefully this one will turn out nicely.

Edited September 21, 2020 by AndrewB

[lew]

Lookin' Good!

 

Depending on the intended uses, bowl diameter, and the type/condition of the wood- the wall thickness can vary considerably. 

 

Display pieces (not for actual use) can have wall thicknesses so thin that light can shine thru them. Larger utilitarian pieces can have a thicker wall. Try to aim for consistent wall thickness from the lip all the way down thru the bottom. 

[AndrewB]

That's what I've been trying to do how ever I just get a bit concerned about blow through.

[lew]

1 minute ago, AndrewB said:

That's what I've been trying to do how ever I just get a bit concerned about blow through.

We are all members of the "Funnel Club"!  

[AndrewB]

Fortunately I haven't done that as of yet.  But speaking of funnels.  That would actually be really fun to try is making a funnel lol.  For it's intended purposed.

[AndrewB]

Aside from a few marks Id say this one came out okay for how thin it is.

[AndrewB]

Got the second Birch bowl blank glued up just hurry up and wait for it to dry now.  I'm contemplating on going to home depot tomorrow and getting another 4 1/2 feet of birch wood.  About 25 bucks worth of birch will make two bowls at a 6 x 6 x 3 blank size.  Not too bad.

[AndrewB]

Welp I hate to say it but yea yall were right on the tripod it just got in the danged way of things.  Was kind of a pain actually.  I don't regret buying it though it worked quite well when it was NOT in the way of things.   How ever the angles weren't as great as I would have liked them.  How ever the birch bowls came out quite nicely and I'm fairly happy with both of them.  They will make great christmas gifts in the end of things.  Also managed to edit bowl videos to under 15 minutes so getting better at that as well.  As far as sanding tools I think I will stick with the 5 inch disc sander for the outsides of future bowls and continue with hand sanding I get much better results.  The 2 inch inertia sander didn't really work for me what so ever.  It just did not want to stick to the wood at all.  So I went back to hand sanding.  Which I have absolutely ZERO problems with doing.  I will probably be looking at making an investment into some abrasive paste to give that a try out at some point as well.  Either way both of the birch bowls came out nicely.

 

[Gerald]

Your work is still improving.

 

Now for some camera mount ideas. You can mount camera from a flex mount or wooden jointed mount with a miniball mount like this :Mini Ball camera mount    or something more costly however this one will work. Place a mount in ceiling over the headstock for the top shot and one at tailstock for that shot. These could also be mounted to wall. Now if you want to spend more a magic arm is an option and there are many configurations of these as well as flex arm mounts . Both of these mounts allow changes in angle of shot and may be closer to what you will want. Magic Arm mount 11 inch

[AndrewB]

I picked up a goose neck only because I could change the angle of it I've had a "magic arm" metal mic stand before and they only make two or three sets of movements.  So I didn't go with that one.  But the way I set things up I should be able to grab both angles with out using a tails stock option.  Main reason being is when I'm hollowing I'm pretty much angling myself in so i can see the interior of the bowl.  Which is normally why I mount the camera from up top on my ceiling.

[Gerald]

With that ball joint you can turn the camera 360 and movements in up and down between 90 and 100 degrees. Also once things get better the Logitec webcams allow even greater movement in the up and down without moving the arm.