Bowl From a board

[Turner52]

Planning a bowl from a board style, except gluing strips together like a dizzy bowl. Want to have it look like a basket weave design. This means I would be rotating each ring 90 degrees. Hope that is understandable. Has anyone tried this and will it hold together. Worried about shrinking and expanding of wood as grain in each layer will be perpendicular to each other. Normally not a good idea.
Thanks.

[robo hippy]

Well, you are pretty much making your own plywood with the cross laminations. The more accurate your milling/prep work is, the better your glue joints will be, and the better it holds together. A drum sander really helps with this, so after you glue up a layer, you can sand it flat along with the next layer. If you are just using a table saw, well, they generally are not as accurate, and if the joints are not tight, then you don't get as good of a glue joint. Stand out of the line of fire at all times when turning.

robo hippy

[Ruler2112]

What do you mean by basketweave pattern? There's a way to use a scrollsaw to make a bowl from a board that is perforated, but it's not turned. I've made one, but don't have pictures online.

[Angus]

In addition to what Robo posted and maybe more important is species selection and moisture content. Are you going to use woods known for being stable? Just one example but I would never try what your planning with madrone. Does the wood show any signs of wind shake? I've had all the supposedly stable domestics twist and move enough to bind up a 2 HP table saw (yes the wood was dry) or have a 2" gap at the front while only running a couple feet into the saw. I would consider these signs of possible problems down the road.
I would make sure each board you use is the same moisture content or very close at least. If the glue up is going to move you want it to do it at the same rate. Buying lumber that is kiln dried may not be good enough. I've bought lumber from the same source that was kiln dried but varied greatly in moisture content.
With all that said 90 degree cross grain glueups seem to be more popular than in the past. You even see more unsuported end grain joints these days. Maybe the glues are better. Maybe I'm just stuck in the old ways. Either way cross grain makes me nervous. Using the first part of my ramblings will reduce but not eliminate the chance of failure down the road.

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

There are a few different ways of doing this. Such as segmenting like Malcom Tibbets does. or scrollsawing the layers, or using a bandsaw. Or even done using the lathe. But the big craze today is using a Ringmaster lathe. Any idea or combination you can think of to make a flat board can be turned into a bowl. Basically the shapes are limited but with the tool you can crank them out fast and easy when dialed in. To me not true segmenting turning but people do them. There are tons of videos on the net describing each technique. Worth 1000 words to watch. Good luck.

[Steve K]

There is a guy who hosts a forum called woodworking friends. It's heavily slanted towards the ring master "lathe" and making bowls from boards. You have to register and log in to view the forum but there is a ton of info there.
forum

[Turner52]

Thanks for the replies. I will give it a try after I finish my current project and let you know how it turns out. If it makes it thru the turning process, still probably won't know for a year how it survive moisture changes in the air. Located in Wisconsin so humidity can be very high at times in the summer to very low in the winter.

[SDB777]

I do this all the time, well...maybe not as much as I should due to the way these are 'received' by customers.



It's 9" diameter Eastern Red Cedar...


I use the RingMaster 723....above bowl took me roughly 20 minutes to cut, glue, sand and finish. I can't get anyone to give me $10 for it.......



Scott (good luck) B

[Steve K]

SDB777 said:

---

I do this all the time, well...maybe not as much as I should due to the way these are 'received' by customers.



It's 9" diameter Eastern Red Cedar...


I use the RingMaster 723....above bowl took me roughly 20 minutes to cut, glue, sand and finish. I can't get anyone to give me $10 for it.......



Scott (good luck) B

---

I had a ringmaster and sold it as I just didn't like the bowls I produced with it. There is a guy who posts on the WOOD forum and that's about all he makes. He says he sells them for decent money. I don't get it.

[Arlin Eastman]

Scott

I am thinking you are in a bad location. I know around here it would sell for more than that.

I would like to try a RingMaster sometime and see if it would be worth buying.

Does everyone who has one like them and use them a lot?

Arlin