My last 4 bowls - Help!

[Quinn McCarthy]

I have been just having a string of bad luck.

The maple one I hope can be salvaged. It is a bowl I got help on last week. The advice ws great. Yesterday I managed to send it flying. The MDF chuck tore just below the base layer. I was able to turn a wood chuck for it and glued it back together and started turning this morning and broke it off again. I had turned the top layer true and was cleaning up the inside. This time it broke in the veneer layer . I had made a venner layer from 2 pieces of black veneer and a piece of holly I cut on the band saw. This is first time I had used venner. I glued the veneer layers with the grain going the same way and gloed the to the base in the same manor. Is that correct? I was just going to mount the top of the bowl in the cole jaws and clean the veneer of the bottom ring. Hopefully I can get this back together straight again. Any advice would the appreciated.

Thanks.

Quinn

[Richard Madison]

Quinn, No surprise that an MDF aux. faceplate broke. Most hardwoods are fine, and I usually use kiln dried SYP construction lumber that has been in the shop long enough to adjust to the temp. and rh there.

Only thought on veneer is that it should be left securely clamped until the glue is thoroughly set, so the veneer does not wrinkle. I would leave it clamped overnight. Parallel grain orientation of several veneer layers should be good.

And the usual sharp tools and light cuts when appropriate.

[Quinn McCarthy]

Thanks for the help.

The bowl is curly maple and I am tearing the end grain a bit. I usually use a elsworth type bowl gouge and am wondering if the regullar bowl gouge would work better.

I keep both sharp.

I usually take light cuts until it is round. I was working at the bottom with a bowl scraper and moved outward to the rim to where it wasn't trued up yet and the scraper caught an edge.

Q

[Walt Bennett]

Regular MDF isn't good for that type of application. I prefer not to use it for anything, but some have used it for vacuum chucks and other things that don't end up with shear forces on it. There's a version of it that's higher density and has more glue (and also costs a lot more) that's supposed to be better, but I'd rather just use a scrap of something laying around.