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size of tenon or foot for rough turning

Nope. No rules here! :)


Start out with a foot diameter 1/3 the diameter of the rim. Adjust from there depending on .... well ... style, desire, asthetics, unexpected grain patterns or knots, catches, and so on.

Utilitarian types of bowls tend to need a foot a bit wider (for stability and positive owner perceptions) than an "artsy" type of bowl.

There's all kinds of measures, designs and formulas of design and the same is true for the bottoms of bowls. But, when it really comes down to it, it all just depends on the bowl sitting on your lathe staring you into the face. Do what looks pleasing to you.
 
For rough turning, bigger is better. Bigger is more difficult to snap off, especially if you are going to use a coring tool.The deciding factor is usually the size of the tenon the chuck's jaws will accomodate.
 
Tendo size

I suggest you think about separating "the tendon" from the foot of the bowl. Often times I create a foot outboard of the tendon so that, when the bowl is reverse-turned to get rid of the tendon the foot is already nicely in place. When using the jaws of my Nova this is an easy thing to do but it requires starting the blank on a faceplate, creating the tendon after the blank is "rounded", then the foot, and then the reverse-turning sequence. Perhaps there is a better way but that is my suggested method. Try different methods and see what you like! Enjoy. Philip
 
I think there is a lot of good advice here already, and Philip has described pretty much how I do it. I discard the tenon from my design considerations. Helps if you have a lot of wood, but if you don't you sometimes can't do things this way.

The only thing I'd add is that you might consider making the tenons almost as large as your jaws will allow for the following reason - as the roughs dry the tenon will warp along with the rest of the bowl and you will often have to retrue it before it will stay put in the chuck - if the tenon is small to begin with, by the time it is re-trued you may wind up with a tenon that is too small for your chuck's jaws.

Don't ask me how I know this.
 
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