Woodturning 2 Cottonwood
Bowls Using Hurricane
5/8 Inch Bowl Gouge

Hi woodturning folks, I have a quick video today that I hope will help you to learn to be a better turner and me a better photographer. I’ve been testing camera booms, editing software and different cameras so I can ramp up my educational woodturning videos, so I decided  to video a couple of cottonwood bowls I wanted to turn using only a Hurricane 5/8″ Bowl Gouge.

I’m turning a couple of cottonwood bowls from blanks/logs that have been laying around for a year and a half. Both ends have been sealed so cracking is minimal. Many woodturners think that cottonwood or poplar are not good wood to turn bowls or other projects, I suggest they do a little research about using cottonwood for woodturning. Where to find cottonwood bowl blanks for sale.

I brought the log into the shop and cut it into two with the bandsaw using a 3/8″ 3 tpi bandsaw blade from www.sawblade.com

I marked the centers of each piece and put it on the circle jig to cut the cottonwood woodblanks into circular blanks. That went well.

Next I put each piece on the drill press and drilled a 2-1/8″ hole in the flat face to mount the SuperNova2 jaws in the recess.

Shaping the Outside of the
Cottonwood Wood Bowl

I began by trying to get the exterior a uniform shape so it will stop any wobbles or shakes. Once the shape is close I start to work on a recess/mortise at the tailstock end. I make mine 1/4″ to 1/2″ deep depending how big the bowl is. I work on getting a dovetail put in recess, this really locks the bowl onto the nova chuck. At some point I take the tailstock away and finish the recess with dovetail edges….. this is the new bottom of the bowl and is almost ready to be mounted on the Nova chuck.

I kept the bowl blank mounted on the nova chuck in the forstner drilled recess and the tailstock pushed up against the bowl the entire time. The bowl is shaped, has 2 coats of Zinnser Shellac Sanding Sealer, each coat sanded down to 320 grit. I will more than likely leave the recess in the piece. I plan on getting a branding iron and this is the area I will brand.

Plus by leaving the recess you can remount the piece in the event that it cracks or gets other deformities that can only be fixed by remounting on the lathe.

Wood Bowl Flipped & Mounted
In The New Recess

The bowl is now ready to be hollowed out.

The exterior of the cottonwood bowl is finished with sanding sealer and 2 coats of lacquer. All I have to do is turn the bowl around and mount the new recess into the Nova Chuck Jaws

Roughing Out A Cottonwood Bowl Blank

In this video I use a 5/8″ Hurricane Bowl Gouge with an Irish Grind to gouge out the interior of the cottonwood bowl to a rough shape. Woodturning a bowl consists of 3 basic phases.

• • • #1 Attaching the wood bowl blank to your lathe
    • #2 Shaping Your Wood Bowl
    • -rough shape or form
    • -final form
    • #3 Sanding and Finishing

This bowl first had a recess drilled into the wood blank with a 2 1/8″ forstner bit. on the bottom for attaching the wood bowl blank to the Nova Chuck. The exterior was turned to shape first, a recess was cut into the bottom of the bowl with a bowl gouge and special tool I made for attaching to my Nova Chuck with recesses/mortises.

The exterior of the cottonwood bowl was sanded down to 320 grit and I applied 2 coats of Zinnser sanding sealer . The bowl was then flipped over and inserted into the jaws of the Nova chuck. This was a dovetailed recess or mortise and about 2 7/8″ for the nova jaws.

As shown in the video I used my 5/8 Hurricane bowl gouge to hollow out the bowl to a rough shape. The thickness of the outside walls are approximately 10% of the width of the bowl …..in this case about 8″.

The wood was very wet still. However, it cut nicely, shavings were flying and it was an easy and fun bowl to gouge out. My bowl gouge was nice and sharp and I had some fun hollowing it out.

Preparing To Dry The Cotton Wood Bowl

I dry bowl blanks several different ways. This time I thought I would take it nice and slow. First I weighted the bowl with a Digital Scale. Then I put the bowl in a paper bag full of shavings. I put the bag on the top shelf, the heater is still on in the shop so it gets 80° plus….I’ll check it after a week. It usually takes about a month to get it to stop losing water weight…..then I know its dry.

Woodturing Cottonwood Into A Wood Bowl Video

Cottonwood Bowl Blanks For Sale

There is plenty of cottonwood in my area so I really don’t need to buy cottonwood bowl blanks but you might find yourself wanting to turn a cottonwood bowl and do not have access to cottonwood.

Surprisingly Ebay is a great source for cottonwood bowl blanks at fair prices, click here to check out what Ebay has to offer today!