Platter n bowl flattening

[Bill Mains]

How do you avoid dips or high spots inside bottom of bowls n how to make face side of platters flat?

[jerickson]

There are tips and tricks out there, but the most important thing is tool control. I like to have a smooth surface straight from the tool--or at least 95% smooth. For me, this comes from nice sharp tools, a steady hand, and rotating my body with the cut instead of just moving my arms.

After I put my gouge down, I generally use a negative rake scraper to remove minor tool marks. This work really well for minor tool marks and maybe very slight dips or high spots.

[Arlin Eastman]

Bill

I use my bowl gouge that Lyle Jamieson gave me and the taught me to point the edge in the direction I want it to go.

If I want it to go into the wood at a certain degree I point the tool that way.

Arlin

[MichaelMouse]

I deliberately leave a tiny "button" at the bottom. Used to continue my cut from rim to bottom, but the last would twist out and leave a divot. Less wood to tool or sand with a button left behind by working the tool out from center.

Nice flexible cabinet scraper used lathe off for working flat platters, though I've seen folks wrap a stick with stickyback sandpaper and rotate until things were flat.

Final cheat - don't use gloss finishes. Matte is much more forgiving.

[ChuckO1234]

Thanks for asking this question. I have the same problem.

[Steve K]

In a word, practice. Waste some wood, practice getting shallow forms smooth with your bowl gouge. Practice until you can consistently get a nice smooth surface across the dished out area. The front bevel on a gouge is like the elevator on a plane and your gouge will cut in whatever direction it's pointing. Point it into the wood and it will cut deeper. Decrease the angle and it will cut more shallow. Practice going a little deeper with a little sharper curve, practice until you can handle that and then push yourself to go deeper and sharper, practice. There are times when a heavy scraper will do a better job than your gouge but, using a scraper effectively requires practice as well.

[NCPaladin]

To me Jerickson brought up the most important item. Stance. "rotating my body with the cut instead of just moving my arms"
Here is a link to some Stuart Batty videos and three are on stance (some spindle orientation, some bowl orientation) on page two of his listings.
https://vimeo.com/woodturning/videos/sor...:thumbnail

For platters, using the correct stance, you can move across the entire area and the cut will be straight. Using a straight edge, like a piece of aluminum, will leave a mark on the high areas so you know exactly where wood needs to be removed.

[AHill]

Keep your tool rest perfectly parallel to the bottom of the bowl or platter. This helps when moving the tool along. Tool control cannot be overemphasized. The very last thing I do on the insides of bowls or top side of platters is to take a scraper and make VERY light cuts across the surface. You can feel the high spots with your hands. Start there and keep the same projection of your tool as you draw it across the rest of the surface. There's a tendency to want to make shavings all the time you present a tool to the wood. Avoid that temptation. At that point, you're just trying to knock off the high spots.

All this may be moot if you take extra care in the beginning to make a surface flat. Another trick I do on bowls is don't make the bottom flat at all. Make it a gentle curve. All this takes practice.

[robo hippy]

Here is a link to a video that I did that covers the topic. Getting all of your inside curves smooth is, to me, the most difficult part of bowl and platter turning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlEfNb9A1Ac

robo hippy

[jerickson]

robo hippy said:

---

Getting all of your inside curves smooth is, to me, the most difficult part of bowl and platter turning.
robo hippy

---

That makes me feel better, given your experience and skill. I still get frustrated by tiny uneven spots, especially when I don't notice until I'm about done sanding.