34706 Maintenance

This is my Central Machinery 34706 Lathe.

Go ahead and click the blue wordings if you wish to go see it on the Harbour Freight website.

Anyway, it is time to do maintenance on it. I have promised at least two people that next time I done this, I would snap some photos and do a blog entry about general maintenance and such on this lathe.

So here goes.

First of all, I wish to talk briefly about this lathe.

It came from Harbour Freight. It was less than three hundred dollars after taking off for a twenty percent coupon and then adding back for the two year extended warranty. Now, one can very well go spend much, MUCH more for a lathe. I won't sit here and argue if one lathe is better than another lathe. I know there are better, and more expensive lathes, that I would love to have. Since some of us don't have huge budgets though, I feel this is one of the best lathes out there for someone without a bank roll of cash.

One of the first things that should come to mind when you talk about maintenance on any lathe is your bed. It doesn't matter if you have a pipe bed lathe, a flat bed lathe, or whatever. Your bed needs to be clean and all parts moving freely. This involves sometimes removing rust and waxing it. If you do find rust, maybe you need to consider waxing it more often. As a matter of fact, I think it would be quite difficult to wax your lathe bed too often. Waxing it is what keeps things moving on it freely.

Speaking of things moving on the lathe bed, let's look at how things are held secure on the 34706.

Here are the parts to the tool rest holder. The tail stock parts are exactly the same underneath. It operates on a draw bar concept. You have a handle that turns a bent shaft. That bend, when turned upwards away from the bottom, pulls a draw bar tight to clamp the accessory to the bed securely. This is adjustable by tightening or loosening the nut on the draw bar.

I recommend getting familiar with how this works. There is a fine line between tightening the nut enough to have it clamp with no chance of movement while still having it loose enough to allow free movement when the handle is turned to move the accessory.

The next thing I like to pay attention to is the motor. The motor is a fan cooled unit. If too much crud and dust gets around the fan, it cannot properly keep the motor cool. If you don't believe this makes a difference, clean any dirty fan blades, even on a shop fan, and feel what difference clean blades make.

I have seen some terrific filter systems made for this machine by different people. I think they are a great idea. I do not use one. I do have my reasons. When I am feeling well, my lathe sometimes goes for hours on end without being shut off. I have felt the motor on this lathe after turning a large bowl. It gets hot enough to fry an egg on. While the filter idea may work wonderfully for some, I simply don't want to make the trade off by restricting air flow on my machine.

So while doing maintenance, and more often if I feel it's needed, I remove the fan cover by taking out three philips head screws, and blow the excess dust out around and off of the fan on the motor.

Next we need to oil the belt drive system.

There is one screw on top of the belt cover, two on the side, and

Then there's one underneath it that is hard to see until you get down there looking for it.

Remove all four screws and remove the cover.

This is the Reeves Drive system. It is the belt drive system that allows quick changing of the speeds on this machine.

I have heard a lot of good and bad about these systems. My opinion of it is that it works, and does what it is supposed to do. The few people I have talked to personally who have had issues with the Reeves Drive System all had one thing in common; they never oiled it. This is a mechanically controlled system. Unlike the much higher priced electronically controlled systems, anything mechanical requires routine maintenance and oiling.

I oil mine about every three months.

The first thing you need to do is to look at the condition of the belt. Is it frayed? Does it look torn or worn underneath it? They put some pretty crappy belts on these machines at the factory. That is nothing against the machine. A lot of manufacturers skimp on things like belt quality.

I'm sure there is a belt size in just about any brand you have at your local parts house. Just take off the old belt and take it with you. It is easy to figure out how to take it off. Simply push against the springs until you have enough play to wiggle the belt off.

This photo shows the NAPA part number for the belt I have on mine.

While talking parts, let me discuss what I oil mine with. I like Marvel Mystery Oil. It is a brand name, but it is simply a light machine oil. You can also use household 3-N-1 oil. I have heard of people using grease. I would NEVER put grease on this machine. From my experience, grease and anything that puts out a lot of chips or sawdust simply do not mix. When it is mixed, it simply creates a gunky mess that will need to be cleaned off later. I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm only saying I would never do it.

Next, turn the machine on and set it at it's lowest speed and the belt system will look like it does in this photo when you turn it off.

Turn it off, go back around to the back side of the machine and put a few drops of machine oil on the pulley shaft for the side closest to the front of the lathe.

In this photo, look near the top of the photo and you'll see a spring. Just below that spring you see a clean spot on the shaft. This is where that pulley slides back and forth on the shaft. Put a few drops of oil right there.

It is important that you get oil only on the shaft while doing all of this. Anywhere else and you chance oil on your belt and you will have belt slippage.

Now turn the machine on and turn the dial up to it's highest speed and shut it off again and it'll look like this photo.

Notice the pulley driving the headstock moved out and allowed a smaller turning diameter, while the drive pulley moved closer together forcing a larger drive pulley.

Now, put a few drops of oil right there on the shaft under the spring where the pulley half slides back and forth.

Now, at this time I like to work the speed up and down a few times and watch the pulleys as they move in and out just for my own piece of mind. It allows me to look for any potential problems while the cover is off and giving me a clear view of everything.

After that, reinstall your belt cover.

Now I want to talk about  aligning the points of the lathe.

Install something with a center point into your headstock and tail stock. Now bring them together and lock down the tail stock and see how well they line up.

Let me stop there. I know there are arguments about how important it is for the two points to be perfectly aligned. I have read about folks in the opinion that it doesn't matter much. If that is so in your opinion, that is fine. I though am a little picky about my tools and insist on mine being aligned. Besides, I like to reverse chuck my bowls without any issues. This is only done successfully (again, in my opinion only) with properly aligned center points.

So, back to those points.

Are they aligned both up and down and side to side?

If they are off side to side, just remember that this lathe has a rotating head. Play with it until you get the head tightened down into a position where it is aligned.

Now if they are off alignment up and down, well that is a bigger issues.

I have talked with several people who own this lathe and no one had ever had issue with the points being out of align up and down......

Except mine.

I think I am just unlucky like that.

If the headstock is higher than the tail stock, I suggest either learning to live with it or returning it for an exchange if you bought it new. I have several ideas on how to attack that issue, but none simple enough to explain here.

If the tail stock is higher than the headstock, then the headstock needs to be raised. This is what I had to do to mine.

The first step is to loosen the hold down handle that holds the headstock into position.

Next, you'll have to get down low under the back of the headstock and remove two lock nuts.

Then you keep unscrewing the lock down handle until the back hold down block comes off the threaded rod. Remove the front hold down block from the front and this is what you are left with. This is the hold down assembly that holds the head of the lathe down.

With that removed, you can lift and move the head completely off the lathe, and out of the way.

This shows the orientation of the hold down bolt on the rotator ring below the head. The angles inside edges hold the ring while tabs above that grip the head. You need to see how that works in order to be able to reinstall the head unit.

With the head removed, this is the rotator ring. It is held down with three allen head screws and kept aligned correctly with two pins that protrude from the bottom of the ring and go into holes on the lathe bed.

I am not removing mine at this time because I already have it shimmed perfectly for my lathe. I only took it this far apart to show the process.

You can see three tabs sticking out from under my rotator ring in this photos. Those are slices of a Coca-Cola can folded in half that I used for shims. You can use pretty much anything for a shim as long as it is a material that will not compress upon itself in time. For minute adjustments, I've always found that soda cans work well.

And installation is reverse of the removal.

Don't be surprised if you do not get the points aligned perfectly on the first attempt. The problem is that you cannot be sure until you completely reassemble it and tighten down the head unit onto the bed and check it. If it is still too low, you have to disassemble again and add more shims. If it is now too high, you have to disassemble and use less shim material.

It can be frustrating. Some may say this is the fault of a cheap machine. I counter though that I have heard of the same sort of issues on machines that cost five times as much. Luckily, once you get it right, it is right from now on.

And that is all there is to maintenance on this lathe. I think I covered all that could come up with basic maintenance. If there is anything I left out, or questions, please do not hesitate to leave a comment or contact me via email.

.

So until next time my friends,

HAPPY TURNING!!!

Odd Jobs

I have gotten very little done lately. I have had several odd jobs come into the shop. These odd jobs seem so mind numbing to me to do. So by the time I finish with them each day, I don't feel much like getting online.

You know what they so though, sometimes we do the things we don't like to do in order to be able to afford to do the things we do like to do.

This is a rocking chair that came in. It wasn't much to it. It just needed some screws tightened up and some glue joints reglued.

This doll cradle project made me sick.

This little gem was once a well made piece of toy furniture for some little girl. When it came into the shop, I scraped off some paint and realized that there was some real nice oak under about five layers of paint. So I had hopes of bringing it back down to bare wood and putting a clear finish on it. That would have really made this piece shine.

Unfortunately though, the further I got into the project, the less promising it looked.

First, several deep scars in the wood were bad enough before someone used paint almost like wood putty and filled the holes with it.

To make matters worse, the large flat piece on the headboard has been replaced somewhere along the way with a piece of plywood.

In the end, about all I can do with this is to brush off the loose paint as best as I can and repaint it white. I also need to make a bottom for it. This is currently still on my work bench drying. I hope to finish it up in the next few days.

Next up, someone needed a small children's pic-nic table for a birthday present. These are easy to build, but use enough lumber to make them expensive for what they are. So I stopped trying to keep them around because everyone loves them but doesn't like paying the price for them. I still make them though for special orders.

The last project I have to show you today is my favorite. I actually enjoy doing projects like this one.

This is an old Coca-Cola bench. The man that brought it in picked it up at a flea market. I have no idea about the history of this bench. According to the information I was able to find, I think they were sold by Wal-Mart in the early 90s.

The wood was in pretty horrible shape. Luckily though, everything but the wooden slats is made of decent quality cast iron. So it was no problem saving this piece and even making it nicer.

The customer understood up front that it would cost more for cypress wood, but wanted to go that way anyhow. I am so glad he did. Cypress will grey with age, but will not rot out as easily as the wood that was on it before.

Also, I redesigned the slats a tad.

Originally, the assembly for the bench back was held together with dowels. In my opinion, this just would not be strong enough for a bench. So I redone the back using mortise and tenon joints.

.

And that's what I've been up to lately, when I've been able to get anything done. The crazy weather we've had lately has been wreaking havoc on my health. We've had forty degree temperature swings on some days. Those kind of changes are pure hell on chronic pain sufferers.

Spring is right around the corner though, and I hope to be able to do a lot more in the shop in the very near future.

 



Making Bowls - Part 3

I made a bowl in the last installment. You can see it here if you haven't read it.

In this installment, I will show another option for mounting the bowl and getting the same job done.

I'll start just like I done the other bowl, marking center and marking a circle. Again, the circle, and cutting off corners is not absolutely necessary. It is a step I do though. I just prefer to start with a somewhat round blank at the lathe.

Also, especially for certain wood like this box elder I'm using for this bowl, I save the cut off corners for inlay pieces on pens at a later date.

I also need to point out that on this one I am marking all this on the top of the bowl instead of the bottom.

Next, I drill a hole with a forstner bit in the blank. I will use this hole to mount it on my chuck. However, if you do not have a forstner bit or drill press, this step allows another option. At this time, if you like, you can center a face plate and screw it to the blank. If you are using a face plate, you skip this and screw the face plate, with the blank attached to it, onto your lathe.

Whether using a chuck with the hole drilled, or a faceplate, with the blank on your lathe, round it and get it balanced the best you can.

After getting it round, you can go ahead at this time and shape the outside of your bowl. Notice that when doing it this way, the bottom of the bowl is pointed towards your tailstock instead of the headstock.

Next, you need to measure what size your chuck can accommodate and mark where the jaws will have to go at. You can do this with a tape measure if you need. I simply use my forstner bit that I usually drill holes with for my chuck. I put the center point of the forstner bit into the hole the tailstock center made before, and make a pencil mark on the outer edges of the forstner bit. This tells me where my chuck jaws will be able to go into.

Then, on the mark I made with the pencil, I'll make a cut into the bottom of the bowl, or in this case, my waste block. There is a variety of ways to cut this. You can use a small scraper, a diamond shaped parting tool, or I've even seen it done by making repeated cuts with a thin parting tool and another guy I seen who was real good done it with a quarter inch bowl gouge. I like to use a straight bit in my oland tool.

Then I reverse the bowl, using the groove I just cut, I mount the bowl onto my chuck.

And hollow the bowl.

You may notice I did not use a depth gauge to make a hole to depth on this bowl like I done the other one.

I wanted to show another way to measure it if you don't have or don't want to use, a depth gauge.

I have this little tool I use for this purpose, but you can use a second straight rule, or even a tape measure. Simply lay a straight edge across the top of the bowl and use a secondary measuring tool to stick to the bottom of the inside of the bowl and you can easily see how deep it is. Compare this to the overall thickness of your original blank and you can tell how thick your bottom is. When you start getting close to the final depth, stop and measure often, or you can easily turn through the bottom and turn a real pretty bowl into a real pretty funnel.

Sand and finish.

Flip the bowl into the flat jaws just like we done the other bowl.

And that makes a bowl too.

This bowl, if you use a faceplate, eliminates the need for a forstner bit or drill press. Then while turning, we eliminated the need for a depth gauge.

.

The point of this part was to demonstrate that, with a little thought, you can get by without having certain things. I'm making it easy on myself because I love me chucks. However, if you don't have a chuck, there are even tutorials online to turn bowls without that. If you're good at using a parting tool, you can mount a waste block thick enough to accommodate screw length, turn a bowl completely on a face plate, and then part it off and sand the bottom clean on a table.

Anything is possible. You are only limited by your imagination.

.

Just a couple more things.

Whatever tools and accessories you do have at your disposal, use them to your full advantage.

Here, the curved tool rests are not just for getting at those insides of bowls. They are really beneficial at making sharper curved on the outsides of bowls.

This is just one more way of giving a bowl more shape. If this was used on a tall vessel, you could reverse the curved rest halfway up and create an S-shaped profile. As I keep saying, possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Also, once you start getting techniques down, have fun and experiment with your materials. You'll be surprised at what you can some up with.

In the left stack, you see that piece of rose wood on top? It's missing a corner on the top and it is unevenly cut. We could mount this up and turn it down till that corner, where bark once was, is gone,

Or.........

We can leave it as is and just turn an interesting bowl.

Just be careful when turning something like this and take light passes. You have to realize that you are turning air for part of the upper sidewalls. That means that for every revolution your lathe makes, your tool has to pass through open air while not touching anything as it goes across that missing patch of wood. It can be done. It just take practice and patience.

.

I hope I've helped someone with this blog series. It is hard to explain some of it with only photos. I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to take a class or get some one on one tutoring from another experienced wood turner. I did not have that option, so I understand if you can't either. In that case, watch some videos. You can see little things in videos that photos and words just can't explain.

.

Until next time my friends, happy turning!!!

Making Bowls - Part 2

If you are just tuning in, here is part 1 if you wish to catch up.

So let's turn a bowl!

I decided to start with something simple.

This is a sapelle block. It is five inches square, less than two inches thick and has a piece of three quarter inch thick cottonwood glued to it for a waste block.

I start by finding the center. There are many ways to accomplish this, but for a square block, I find it easiest just to take a steel rule and mark a line across the corners.

Next I use a compass and mark a circle as big as I can, or smaller if I don't wish to use as much of the block as possible, around the block. For this bowl I am marking all this on the waste block, which will later be the bottom of the bowl. Later I will be showing another method. This is but one way to do it.

There is a variety of ways to make a hole to mount the wood to the chuck. I use this two and one eighth forstner bit in a drill press. I will tell you a way in the next installment to do all this if you don't have a drill press. As I've said, there are many ways of doing all this. You can follow along and use a combination of things to get the job done. Turning can be fun. Use your imagination and anything is possible.

Next, I like to, when possible, round the blank on my band saw. If you don't have a band saw, this step is not even completely necessary. It reduces the roughing out stage and makes the blank more balanced when you first start turning. You can absolutely though mount the square block and simply start turning until you make it round.

Also, the band saw is not the only way to take the square corners off. There are many, many ways. I even seen one guy on the internet that takes the corners off of something like this with an chainsaw or hatchet.

Now you mount it on the lathe. As you can see, for this example, the bottom of the bowl, or waste block, is mounted to the chuck. The tailstock is brought up to support the wood. ALWAYS use your tailstock until the wood is balanced well and turning until you are absolutely comfortable with turning it with no support. I have had some knotty pieces of wood that I even done most of my hollowing with the tailstock in place.

I repeat, DO NOT turn without the tailstock supporting your work until you KNOW that you are comfortable to do otherwise. Off balance pieces of wood, or pieces during a bad can, can and will leave the lathe at high speed. The tailstock will keep it from doing so.

There are differing opinions here, but I like my tool rest to be at about the center line when truing up the outside of a bowl. That puts me tool edge just above center.

I will be specific about this point as I go because I used to have a little confusion when learning how to turn bowls. Some people will say bring the rest to center when what they mean it tool edge to center. Because of the way we hold the tools, your tool edge is not going to always be necessarily at the same height as your tool rest. It will be a little above or below it.

Now you're ready to turn!

Right?

STOP!!!

Remember what I said about the full face shield. I do not recommend anyone EVER turning on the lathe to turn a bowl without a face shield on.

Have I ever turned a bowl without a face shield?

Yes.

Have I ever been hit in the face with a piece of wood?

Yes.

Do I know better now?

Yes.

Should you always wear a face shield when turning bowls?

Yes.

Yes.

And Yes.

With the tool rest as close as I can get it without coming into contact with the wood, I take my gouge and make the blank and waste block round.

I use my gouge, put the tip above the cut line so the bevel is riding on the piece of wood. Slowly bring your tool handle up and the cutting edge down until your edge starts cutting. Then, with your hand supporting the shaft on the tool rest, move it across the rest in one steady line. Keep doing this until your piece is round.

In time, with enough practice, you'll be able to just stick the edge to the wood in a split second without all that lowering your tool slowly and all. You'll just get a feel for where the good cutting starts. Just remember that a gouge cuts if the bevel is rubbing and the edge is shaving. That same gouge though can make rough scrapings if you lower the edge enough that the edge can't cut. You can still turn that way, but it just won't be as clean and you'll have to do extra sanding to make it look good later.

I am explaining this as best I can. I do not have good enough video equipment to truly show how to do all this. If in doubt though, the internet is your friend. There are many many videos on YouTube that will show you the basics of bowl turning if you're unsure of any of the technique I am explaining.

One of my favorites is Cap'n Eddie Castelin. Here is a link to Cap'n Eddie's YouTube page. Take a while, a few days if you need, and watch his videos. I have learned more from watching his videos than anything else besides practice.

Anyway, after the blank is round, I shape the outside of the bowl. Notice that if any of the waste block interferes with the shape of the bowl, turn it away. It is a waste block after all. You will be wasting it in the end. As long as you leave enough material for the chuck to hold it, you're fine. Just turn away anything that is in the way of getting the result you want.

Next thing I like to do is to face the front of the bowl, or what will be the top.

To face a bowl, I use my gouge, take very light passes from the outer edge working towards the center, and shave off material until the face is flat.

Let me stop here and answer a question I am asked often.

If you look at this photo, the grain runs across the bowl. This is how a bowl is usually turned. You work a bowl like this from the outer edge to the center.

When I first started turning a bowl for the first time, I had the grain running with the lathe bed. Somehow it just made since to me that since a tree is round, and a bowl is round, then that was the way it should be oriented.

Now, you can orient the grain the way I described, running the direction of the lathe bed. That is called an end grain turning. It is done, but it is even harder than turning a regular bowl. I do not recommend beginners attempting end grain turnings. End grain turnings you hollow by working from the center towards the outer edge. They are harder to work with than a regular bowl. They take more practice in my opinion. Also, the end grain is harder on tool edges, requiring you to have to sharpen more. Since sharpening is something that I think most beginners are still trying to learn as well, I don't thing something that make even more sharpening needed, like end grain turning, is something that needs to be tackled at this time. Let's just stick with regular bowls for now.

Now, do you remember my depth gauge from my first post?

This is nothing more than a long drill bit that I turned a handle for and epoxied the drill bit into.

Then I rummaged through my junk drawer and found a large rubber washer to go over it snugly.

Now I will show you how I use the depth gauge.

Measure how thick the bowl blank is. This one is one and three quarters inch thick. So if I want a quarter inch thick bottom, I need to hollow out about an inch and a half deep.

So I remove the center point from my tailstock and run the depth gauge through the tailstock. This is the reason I used such a long drill bit. This gives the bit support and the tailstock helps assure that I am at least near center when I start drilling.

I measure and place the rubber bushing an inch and a half from the tip of the drill bit. This is how deep I want my bowl. I usually go just shy of what I want my bowl to be. This allows me extra material at the bottom should I need it for cleaning up my cutting marks and such.

Next, with the lathe on at it's slowest speed, advance the end of the bit into the bowl blank.

Go slow and back it out often to eject the chips out that the bit has cut. If the bit happens to catch and hang up inside the bowl blank, let go of the handle. The tailstock will support if while you reach for the shut off switch. Worst case scenario, it is better to ruin a three dollar drill bit than to take a chance on hurting your hand trying to hold it.

I've only had the bit bind once in all the time I've used it (about a year now) and it did not damage the bit. I just had to shut the lathe off and slowly work the bit out of the blank before I could continue.

After you have drill with the depth gauge till the rubber washer is up to the bowl blank, remove it, move your tailstock out of the way, and start hollowing.

Work slowly. In time, you'll find that groove where you know how much material you're comfortable taking at one time. For me, I am comfortable taking huge swipes of wood. I have burned one lathe up that way though. So for the sake of your lathe, unless you are lucky to have one of those huge beasts of a lathe, take small cuts.

Work from the outside in. Use the edge of your tool to "catch" where you want to start, ride the bevel to the center, and keep working it like that until you hollow out the entire bowl. As I said earlier, there are many videos online showing the proper technique to do this.

Here is a video by Cap'n Eddie. At about the ten minute mark he started facing and hollowing the bowl. The angle of the camera I think shows real well in that video how to hollow.

Now, as with a lot of things in turning, different people have different techniques they like or dislike. Some people at this time would work a little at a time starting at the center and working out. Some people will cut into the bowl exactly where they want the inside edge of their sides to be and go from there. I like to take wide paths out from near the edge to the center and just keep working deeper and deeper. I leave the sidewalls thick until I am almost through hollowing. Then I pick up the sides and work them down as thin as I want them as I clean up the bottom.

As I work deeper, the deeper I go, the smaller the cuts I'll make. If I try to take too much at once while working more than about an inch past the tool rest, I get a lot of chatter. Chatter is the tool "bouncing" on the rest. With chatter, crazy things can happen, the least of which is a messy looking cut that will be hard to clean up later. So, the further you go over the rest, the more you need to slow down.

Actually, you could get a curved rest into this bowl. That would get you closer to the work and you could take more material at a time. Often though with shallow bowls, I don't bother. I'm not in a hurry and just take small cuts and enjoy myself.

When you can no longer see a recessed dimple in the center where you drilled the hole earlier, you are at the bottom of the bowl. Now you need to be careful or you'll turn right through the bottom. I have done that more times than I care to admit.

ACTUALLY

If you notice on this bowl, I was so busy trying to get good pictures that, if you notice the outer edge of the bottom, I turned through the bottom of the bowl on this one.

All is not lost though. Always look and see what can be done. Remember that a lot of things can be fixed when turning. I have even taken bowls off the lathe, sanded and added new bottoms to save an otherwise ruined bowl.

In this case, using a waste block saved me.

I just turned through the sapelle to the waste block. This left me with a sapelle bowl with a light colored cottonwood bottom.

Next you sand the bowl, everything that you can get to. This will be the sides, and inside. I am not getting into sanding techniques here because at this time I am not even happy with the results of my own sanding techniques on a regular basis. That is a work in progress that I may blog on in the future when I find something I am happy with.

After sanding, you finish what you can get to. There is any variety of finished you can use, varnish, oils, or some food safe finishes such as salad bowl finishes.

For this bowl, I plan on it being just a simple dish my wife likes to put in various places around the house to hold small items. For these, I use Johnson's Paste Wax.

After the finish is applied and buffed out, or dried if you use a finish that needs drying, remove the bowl from the chuck, and put on your flat jaws. I am lucky enough that I have two chucks so I can leave flat jaws on one of them just for this purpose. If you have only one chuck, you'll have to remove your regular jaws and put on your flat jaws.

Then you hold the bowl in the flat jaws upside down.

Be careful here and practice. Realize that the rubber on the jaws will hold bowls better than you think. Long ago, I cracked several bowls by clamping down too tight with the flat jaws. The thinner your sides, the less force you'll be able to apply without cracking your bowl.

However, the flat jaws do not hold a bowl as sturdy as your regular chuck. So take your time, take tiny cuts at a time, using the same method as you did earlier when you faced the top of the bowl, remove the waste block.

On this bowl, remember because of my mess up, I am leaving a bit of the waste block.

You can remove the waste block and make it flat. You can leave a ridge around the bottom to allow the bowl to appear to "float" on the table, or pretty much anything else you can imagine.

After getting it where you are happy with it, sand and finish the bottom.

And that is a completed bowl.

.

Next, I'll show another method of making a similar bowl.