# router cut bowl



## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

My local woodworking guild has a small CNC machine. I asked one of they guys familiar with it to make me a simple template in some 1/4" baltic birch plywood. 

Add the bowl bit and extension from MLCS and you have a pretty neat setup.

This bowl is cherry. I made a second one from some reclaimed chestnut (old church pews) that I laminated to make a larger block. That one I didn't get a picture before wrapping it for Xmas. The chestnut one makes a good potpourri bowl at about 1-1/2" deep. The cherry bowl is much deeper and just so happens to hold two of the large bags of M&M candies.

Finished with wax only in both cases.


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## Ray H (Nov 22, 2008)

Nice Bowl - I really like it.
What is the length and width?

Ray H


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

Nice bowl, Rob.

How did you cut the outside of the bowl?


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

The finished bowl in cherry is:
9" x 4" inside, walls are about 1/4" thick. The cherry block was milled to 3" thick so the inside is about 2-3/4".

You start with a squared up block, screw down the template in the waste area to mark out the inside of the bowl. Then use a Forsner bit at the drill press to remove most of the waste. After that put the template back on and use the bowl bit to clean things up and match the template.

Scraping & sanding the inside end-grain took the longest amount of time, a gooseneck card scraper does most of the work but I still needed 150 and 220 grit to even things out. Then I marked a line 1/4" around the perimeter and bandsawed the bowl free from the blank. More sanding.

I used a 1/4" roundover in the router table to roll the top edges, inside and out. If you are careful and take small bites you can backrout the areas that would be prone to tearout. Just be VERY CAREFUL.

Finally I raised the bit in the table and routed a "foot". Again, some very careful backrouting in two places. Mostly I just bumped the bowl against the bit in those areas, pushing it lightly into the bit until the bearing touched, then pull back, slide over and bump again. That removed most of the waste in the danger zone so I could then go back and route in the correct direction. And some scraping then sanding of the profile since I worked so slowly in some areas I got a touch of burning on the cherry.

Same processes for the chestnut bowl but with even more caution as chestnut is pretty soft stuff and somewhat open grain so prone to tearing like ash and oak.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

rwyoung said:


> The finished bowl in cherry is:
> 9" x 4" inside, walls are about 1/4" thick. The cherry block was milled to 3" thick so the inside is about 2-3/4".
> 
> You start with a squared up block, screw down the template in the waste area to mark out the inside of the bowl. Then use a Forsner bit at the drill press to remove most of the waste. After that put the template back on and use the bowl bit to clean things up and match the template.
> ...


That's a beautiful example of a routed bowl Rob. Band-sawing the outside isn't as accurate as routing it using a plug, also band-sawing requires a great deal of sanding. That doesn't effect my opinion that it's a beautiful bowl.
These shots of the making of a lid for a box previously made, illustrate what I mean Rob.


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

harrysin said:


> That's a beautiful example of a routed bowl Rob. Band-sawing the outside isn't as accurate as routing it using a plug, also band-sawing requires a great deal of sanding. That doesn't effect my opinion that it's a beautiful bowl.
> These shots of the making of a lid for a box previously made, illustrate what I mean Rob.


That would work well for a tray or shallow dish but a 3" deep bowl? I've got some extra long straight cutters but I'd be a bit worried about them even hogging away most of the waste with a bandsaw first.

A well tuned bandsaw and some patience can do a nice job. A good blade (happened to be a Carter brand one) left a decent enough surface for a bandsaw. But you are right in that the bandsaw alone will never be as precise.

I use card scrapers instead of low grit paper whenever possible, greatly speeds up the process. Perhaps I overemphasized the sanding aspect. I think it was less than 30 minutes total for the inside and much less for the outside.


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## jd99 (Jun 17, 2009)

Harry:

I agree with Rob, I've done several of these bowls and trays, sanding isn't that big of a deal, the inside is more of a job then the outside. Also to rout the complete side of the bowl would be a bit much due to the length of the side.

I used my spindle sander to sand the out side and took no time at all.

Good looking Bowl Rob.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

rwyoung said:


> That would work well for a tray or shallow dish but a 3" deep bowl? I've got some extra long straight cutters but I'd be a bit worried about them even hogging away most of the waste with a bandsaw first.
> 
> A well tuned bandsaw and some patience can do a nice job. A good blade (happened to be a Carter brand one) left a decent enough surface for a bandsaw. But you are right in that the bandsaw alone will never be as precise.
> 
> I use card scrapers instead of low grit paper whenever possible, greatly speeds up the process. Perhaps I overemphasized the sanding aspect. I think it was less than 30 minutes total for the inside and much less for the outside.


For a 3" bowl I would rout the outside as deep as possible then cut the rest on the band saw leaving about an 1/8" of waste, finally, using a straight bearing cutter trim the waste, the bearing resting of course on the routed part. this method has two advantages over a fully band sawn outside, the wall thickness is constant and next to no sanding is needed.
I'm not trying to be a smart arse Rob, just trying to help using my vast number of routing years trying many methods.


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

harrysin said:


> For a 3" bowl I would rout the outside as deep as possible then cut the rest on the band saw leaving about an 1/8" of waste, finally, using a straight bearing cutter trim the waste, the bearing resting of course on the routed part. this method has two advantages over a fully band sawn outside, the wall thickness is constant and next to no sanding is needed.
> I'm not trying to be a smart arse Rob, just trying to help using my vast number of routing years trying many methods.


Does sound like a good plan. However I would probably still sand (or at least scrape) to remove any marks from the router bit. Best laid plans and all that...

One other idea I had was to leave the wall thickness a bit fat during the bandsawing. Then since I now have access to a wide belt horizontal sander I could tilt the table and make the outside of the bowl at say, 8 or 12 degrees.

Routing that could also be done but I'd have to be a little more fancy about making the template. Maybe even keep the wall thickness even all the way down.

Rob


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## terrydowning (Jan 18, 2011)

That is a really nice looking bowl.


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## otherpeoplestrash (Feb 15, 2011)

Nice. I am a turner and never would have thought to route a bowl.


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## Noob (Apr 18, 2009)

Beautiful bowl, and the bottom "foot" treatment is a nice touch.


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