Ash(?) Crotch Bowl Rough Out

[Thomas Canfield]

A pile of what seems to be soft Ash was found on side of street last week and I picked up a crotch section and a trunk section. The sections had a pith slab about 1-1/2" thick cut out. The photo shows one side of the crotch where I used a cardboard template to locate a center and mark to cut off corners with bandsaw. The piece was then taken to drill press table and blocks used to get the 3 section high points about level and a 3-1/8" Forstner bit then used to form flat spot for 3" faceplate. The live center was used when shaping the outside and forming a large tenon (about 5") for #4 jaws in Stronghold chuck and center dimple made. My little 14" chainsaw and my skill did not do a very good job with pith slab as you can see the large trunk side to be removed. My chuck stand was used to hold the chuck when mounting the piece in chuck. The live center was again used when starting the hollowing, and hollowing done to about 1.5" thickness for the 15" OD. The bark seemed to be tight, but could well separate with drying due to time of year and heavy sap. The bowl is now packed with shavings in some multi-ply paper 50# corn sacks. This wood grain and bark both had an Ash look, but wood was very soft without some of the grain characteristics seen in other Ash. I had 3/8" wide shavings over 6' long coming off the standard bowls earlier. Now I wish I had picked up more wood, but my wood pile is out of hand already.
IMG_1175.JPGIMG_1176.JPGIMG_1177.JPGIMG_1179.JPGIMG_1180.JPGIMG_1181.JPGIMG_1182.JPG

[Mike Goetzke]

Thomas - thanks for posting pictures of all the steps. I'm a new turner and have done about a dozen bowls. I found some wood last year that could be ash also and one piece is a crotch section similar to yours. I have a question though is a 3" faceplate sufficient for a piece this size? Well, of coarse it was you did it but how about for a new turner?



Thanks,

Mike

[Thomas Canfield]

Mike,

The 3" face plate is used to drive the unbalanced wood between centers. There are 8 screws 1" into the wood and only holding the rough turned wood after the outside is roughed out and then only to reduce any nub that might interfere with the chuck and make a center point. If the nub is fairly short, it can be turned down to under 1" dia to clear inside the chuck and the center point is already there. I have used the 3" faceplate on much larger pieces of wood that were held between centers and not "hanging" on the faceplate. I would not consider "hanging" the original section on the 3" faceplate. The large Forstner bit also works well to make a flat spot for worm screw in chuck to mount smaller wood sections, say up to 8"D or so.

[Reed Gray]

Like Thomas said, a 3 inch face plate is okay for turning one this size. If you had only 4 screw holes, it is very minimal. 8 should be fairly secure, but you need the tailstock engaged. The face plate will drive it, but I wouldn't go high speed with it, or turn without the tailstock, especially since I turn hard and heavy.

robo hippy