Almost Ambrosia Maple Bowl
Today's project is a small ambrosia maple bowl that looks like it's smiling! Since the blank had a smile, it spoke to me that it wanted to be a happy little bowl. I decide to make a bowl/hollow form. I use hollow form is the loosest way. I wanted the bowl to have a big curve and the interior walls to follow the curve all the way to the bottom. This was my first time turning ambrosia maple. It is an easy wood to turn, but I did have some tear out on the end grain. The wasn't much character that makes ambrosia maple.....well ambrosia maple. This is why I'm calling it almost ambrosia maple.
I started by finding the center and drilling at 1/4" hole in the center. This allowed me to use my circle cutting jig on the band saw. After I had round, I needed drill a bigger hole (3/8") to fit the worm screw. Once mounted to the lathe, I trued up the blank using the 5/8" bowl gouge. To get the curve that I was looking for, I marked a line in the middle of the blank. I started forming the curve by shaping the bottom first. After I was happy with the bottom curve, I started on the top and met in the middle. There was a bit of tear out on the end grain. Even after sanding with 80 grit it was still pretty rough. This is where sanding sealer comes in handy. It stiffens the fibers and allows the sand paper to do its job. It was super smooth after the sanding sealer and Ack's Abrasive Paste. I made hollowing out the inside easier by using a 2 3/4" forstner bit. To finish off the hollowing, the Easy Wood Tools #1 Hollower did the trick. Before you knew it.....the bowl was finished!
I hope you enjoyed this video and please let me know if you have any project that you'd like to see me do.
Please leave a comment if there are any questions you have or if you feel like I missed explaining a step.
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