In case of difficulty, this video is also available on YouTube and FaceBook. Where Best? Right Here!

Inspired by fellow club members, this project is to turn a cube into a bowl.

For this style bowl, first a blank must be prepared as a perfect cube of any size. My project uses a laminated block of wenge, yellowheart, padauk, maple, mahogany, and cherry.

The trick is to mount the cube to the lathe with one corner at the spindle and the opposite at the live center. On the spindle side, many examples simply put the coner is the hollow of the spindle – not using any chuck or center. IMHO, this mount is prone to spinning as there is limited friction between the steel and the wood. Instead, I mounted a wood faceplate with a hole at center. The cube edges bit into the faceplate wood for a great hold – no slipping.

On the live center side, some examples pop out the center of the live center and press the corner into this cavity. Others nip off the corner but then need to center the live center. This is prone to error while excellent alignment is required for this style of turning. Instead, I mounted another faceplate to my threaded live center which performed similarly to the opposite faceplate.

Then the turning requires careful gentle work since a lot of air is required to cut; there are corners that can hit hands. The wood is at an angle to usual turning which lends itself to chipping.

This bowl is finished with wipe-on poly. It is about 4.5″ by 2″.

It is time to prepare for this year’s challenge. Details are at www.OrnamentChallenge.com

Enjoy.