There are many ways to mount bowls blanks to a lathe. Some turners use faceplates and some will rough out blanks between centers. I know of one turner who roughs out bowls using a big pin chuck. I've tried all these methods and they all work well.

I developed this method because I core all my blanks, even if I don't plan on using the core. I wanted a way that I can quickly and easily remount a blank from both sides. Here is my method for mounting bowl blanks on the lathe.


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When I round my blanks, I use cardboard circle templates. In the center of each template there is a hole where I placed a stick pin to hold the template in place.  If I don't have a template the right size,  I'll use either a big compass or make a new template.

In this case I used a large compass so I can decide where I wanted my center. I marked the circumference then bandsawed along the pencil mark.

Next, I use a spring loaded center punch  to enlarge the hole.  Since the hole is a little hard to see in the photo, I placed a chalk mark for clarification.

(This is the inside of the bowl)


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Here I'm using a speed square to help me eyeball a straight hole. I'm using a 2-1/8" forstner bit mounted in a hand drill.

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I drill to a depth of about 3/8"

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I place a chuck with a set of #2 jaws into the hole.

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Here is the bowl mounted on the lathe and now I get the chance to try out the new home I gave my Thompson bowl gouge.

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Outside all roughed out along with a 2" tenon

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I reversed the bowl and will proceed to core out the center. Once I pop out the center I will flip the core and mount it again using the hole I first drilled. I will turn a new tenon and repeat the process again.

I was able to get three bowl blanks from this piece and the whole process described here took around one hour.

Nice work, Ron.  Your description makes me even more anxious for Robust Hippy's video to arrive.  This method may very well work for me as well.  I like the idea of the drilled hole for the initial chuck hold.  Seems to make a lot of sense.  Most other folks are saying to do the initial shaping between centers with a tenon on the bottom end.  Then reverse and core.  This just makes a lot more sense so that you can re-reverse the core and go at it once again.  The simplest of ideas...  One of those "duh" ideas.
Rev. Doug Miller

I don't use a corer but also use the forstner bit -> chuck method as Ron.  I feel like chucks cause less wood loss than faceplates but perhaps that's just me.

Ron - I have used the technique you have shown us here and it works well for small bowls and good wood.  Through trial and error using the poorer quality wood(birch,denim wood,alder etc) we have here in Canada I have found I need to use my 4" jaws for more holding power particularily with the coring process, so a larger Forstner bit is required.  I also drill using a drill press with the larger bits. Bettter to be safe than sorry!

Chuck Beland wrote on May 18^th, 2008 at 4:02pm:



Yup, I have the McNaughton with the standard and the mini blades.  Eventually I might get the jumbo set.

Chuck Beland wrote on May 18^th, 2008 at 6:54pm:



Good Question, Want to buy it?

I've never used it myself, but I had a chance to watch JoHannes Michelsen turn a cowboy hat once. He used it like a parting tool to remove a ring to create the top part of the hat.

I wonder if the straight ones are so that you can drive two of them into the wall to be a rack for the others?
Rev. Doug Miller