I've recently scored some nice turning wood, and gotten into some bigger size pieces lately. I cut a 28" diameter log down the center. ONe side is pretty rotten, but the other looked like a nice huge bowl blank. I decided it was a bit too big to get on the lathe, and since I finally set up my alaskan mill, I cut a big slice off the face of it. I thought it might make a nice platter for on a wall or a centerpiece.
My wife is out of town, but coming back home this afternoon. I wanted to to turn this and get it done with enough time to walk the dog and clean up a few things. I made a simple compass to mark out 24" diameter. I marked 25" as well, since that's about the limit of my lathe. I chainsawed that 2nd line. (only one small corner had to be sanded away to spin it. In the compass point, I drilled a shallow hole the size of my Elio drive. A 3" disk of wet beech is pretty darn heavy, and having that hole to "hang" it on, while I bring up the tailstock, is really handy.
I trued up the face and diameter of it. It was still unbalanced, so I used my curved inside bowl rest to reach around the true up a good part of the other face as well. I cut in a tenon for my chuck. (Hindsight: Had I removed all the wood around it, instead of just making a notch, I might not have screwed up.) I shaped the bottom side, and because of the large diameter, I left some wood for a larger diameter foot. I fliped it around, keeping the tailstock in place for extra security.
I made the rim thickness about 3/16" and found that at the edge of the bowl part, my calipers were about maxed out. I had to eyeball the angle and depth of the side of it. I set my long tool rest parallel to the face of the rim and used a couple long rulers to measure for depth, one across the face of the btoom "foot" I had left, and the other to measure the distance. My calculations were all good, but being a hidden mortised tenon, I didn't see the chuck jaws. My ruler laying across them made them even more invisible. Needless to say, I was really surprised (and disappointed) to see them.
A couple hours and a nice piece of wood, wasted!
My wife is out of town, but coming back home this afternoon. I wanted to to turn this and get it done with enough time to walk the dog and clean up a few things. I made a simple compass to mark out 24" diameter. I marked 25" as well, since that's about the limit of my lathe. I chainsawed that 2nd line. (only one small corner had to be sanded away to spin it. In the compass point, I drilled a shallow hole the size of my Elio drive. A 3" disk of wet beech is pretty darn heavy, and having that hole to "hang" it on, while I bring up the tailstock, is really handy.
I trued up the face and diameter of it. It was still unbalanced, so I used my curved inside bowl rest to reach around the true up a good part of the other face as well. I cut in a tenon for my chuck. (Hindsight: Had I removed all the wood around it, instead of just making a notch, I might not have screwed up.) I shaped the bottom side, and because of the large diameter, I left some wood for a larger diameter foot. I fliped it around, keeping the tailstock in place for extra security.
I made the rim thickness about 3/16" and found that at the edge of the bowl part, my calipers were about maxed out. I had to eyeball the angle and depth of the side of it. I set my long tool rest parallel to the face of the rim and used a couple long rulers to measure for depth, one across the face of the btoom "foot" I had left, and the other to measure the distance. My calculations were all good, but being a hidden mortised tenon, I didn't see the chuck jaws. My ruler laying across them made them even more invisible. Needless to say, I was really surprised (and disappointed) to see them.
A couple hours and a nice piece of wood, wasted!
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just another reason to use tenons instead of recesses 
