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Basic question about rough turning green bowls

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May 31, 2019
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Highland, MI
I know this is kind of a "Well, duh..." question, but I want to make sure I'm going about this right and I haven't found an answer so far. Every example I've seen for rough turning bowls, shows a generic bowl shape with the requisite 10% walls. But, what if you're planning on making a tall calabash, or a shallow bowl with an ogee bottom, etc.? My guess is that you rough turn a tall calabash shape with thick, even walls, or a rough shallow bowl, but do you include the ogee in the rough shape or just make sure there's enough material to do it later?
Are there any guidelines as to what to include in the rough shape and what to save for later?
 
What do you do if you want a footed bowl, plus a tenon? The bottom is going to be pretty thick no matter what you do.
 
What Richard said but consider that the bottom third of the roughed bowl.will not move as much as the upper third. This means youncan get a little closer to the shape you want near the bottom because you wont be removing as much wood later.
 
What do you do if you want a footed bowl, plus a tenon? The bottom is going to be pretty thick no matter what you do.
Condolences for Jake.

i turn the outside as close to finish shape as I can. Inside to get close to an even wall
bottom a little thinner to Allow for tenon thickness.

as John said the bottom doesn’t appear to move much as the side grain wall moves toward the bottom as they warp..
if I’m roughing to 5/4 thickness. I turn the bottom to the tenon just over 5/4.
when dry shrinkage will be less than 10% of the thickness so the thickness at least 9/8 when dry
these are not in order:
turn off a 1/2” tenon leaves 5/8. Take an 1/8 of the inside bottom leaves 1/2 of wood above the foot.
Turn an 1/8 off the foot leaves 3/8 thickness. Recess a concave in the foot 1/8” deep
the bottom is now 1/4” thick.
3/16 this is still fine.

an 1/8” thick you might see light coming through.
 
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What do you do if you want a footed bowl, plus a tenon? The bottom is going to be pretty thick no matter what you do.
I did some once turned footed end grain bowls where I first turned the outside with the wood mounted with a wood worm and turned a large dovetail tenon that was turned away inside to about a 1/4" ring and continued the outside form. The piece was then mounted on the tenon and the inside was then turned. The hollowed out bowl was mounted on a jam chuck then held with a blunt nose live center and the rough legs were marked then the excess sawed out with a coping saw and finished with rasps and sanding.

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I know this is kind of a "Well, duh..." question, but I want to make sure I'm going about this right and I haven't found an answer so far.
There is no dumb question. Your question is something I've also wondered about for a long time, but never thought to ask. Thank you for bringing it up.
 
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