Blank thickness question

[BrianB1234]

Hey,

Somewhat green at turning. It's been about 3 years so I feel I'm not new but by no means a master at this cheap hobby.

Is 2-3 inches big enough for a bowl blank? That's the sizes I see online for sale (and not uncommon thickness on here either.) I'm going to be processing an ambrosia maple tree once the snow melts and I wonder if I've been cutting to thick of blanks than needed. Are you guys able to turn a decent sized bowl (say 10 inch salad bowl sized) out of a 10x10x2-3" blank? I've never really paid that much attention to the thickness but feel I'm doing blanks in the 5ish inch size for my bowl blanks.

Thank you for any education you may bestow on me.

 

[Eric Rorabaugh]

Yes. You can make a bowl any size you want. It will just be a shallow bowl. But you said something I don't understand.

this cheap hobby

Don't know about you but its expensive on my end. Between the lathe, tools, chucks, accessories, bandsaw, etc. Lol. Just messing with ya. Make sure you cut that ambrosia maple up into blanks and seal the ends. Don't want it cracking so bad it goes to the burn pile.

 

[Mr. Peet]

Hey,

Somewhat green at turning. It's been about 3 years so I feel I'm not new but by no means a master at this cheap hobby.

Is 2-3 inches big enough for a bowl blank? That's the sizes I see online for sale (and not uncommon thickness on here either.) I'm going to be processing an ambrosia maple tree once the snow melts and I wonder if I've been cutting to thick of blanks than needed. Are you guys able to turn a decent sized bowl (say 10 inch salad bowl sized) out of a 10x10x2-3" blank? I've never really paid that much attention to the thickness but feel I'm doing blanks in the 5ish inch size for my bowl blanks.

Thank you for any education you may bestow on me.

I mill planks in 8/4, 10/4 and 12/4. After 2 years on sticks I cut blanks around defects. Sometimes I have them cut at 16/4, but getting to old to throw them around without help.

 

[BrianB1234]

Yes. You can make a bowl any size you want. It will just be a shallow bowl. But you said something I don't understand.

Don't know about you but its expensive on my end. Between the lathe, tools, chucks, accessories, bandsaw, etc. Lol. Just messing with ya. Make sure you cut that ambrosia maple up into blanks and seal the ends. Don't want it cracking so bad it goes to the burn pile.
View attachment 285859

That might have been sarcasm.

 

[BrianB1234]

I mill planks in 8/4, 10/4 and 12/4. After 2 years on sticks I cut blanks around defects. Sometimes I have them cut at 16/4, but getting to old to throw them around without help.

That's actually not a bad idea I haven't thought of. Just mill it into slabs and work from the slab. Do you get less cracking when doing it into slabs? I feel when doing bowl blanks if I don't get to turning them (even sealed) they end up cracking after a while.

 

[Mr. Peet]

That's actually not a bad idea I haven't thought of. Just mill it into slabs and work from the slab. Do you get less cracking when doing it into slabs? I feel when doing bowl blanks if I don't get to turning them (even sealed) they end up cracking after a while.

I seal the log ends. Mill as soon a possible. Then reseal the plank ends. The last 3-7" inches often check, but being in plank, centers often hold well. Air dry outside covered from rain + and direct sun. Once the moisture meter says blank time, cut and seal them. Works good for soft maples, most birches and cherries, so-so for hard maples, well for Basswood not well for Service berry and Black locust. Service and B. locust seem to only work when 1/4 sawn. Kind of a regional thing and your weather is much like ours.

 

[djg]

I'm new at this, so I'm not giving any advice. But wouldn't you want a blank that size to be thicker to accommodate for a tenon and then a foot? I guess you could do without the foot.

 

[Alancw]

Depends on what size bowl you want to turn. Not many salad bowls for serving are made from 2 inch thick blanks.

 

[JD1137]

Hey,

Somewhat green at turning. It's been about 3 years so I feel I'm not new but by no means a master at this cheap hobby.

Is 2-3 inches big enough for a bowl blank? That's the sizes I see online for sale (and not uncommon thickness on here either.) I'm going to be processing an ambrosia maple tree once the snow melts and I wonder if I've been cutting to thick of blanks than needed. Are you guys able to turn a decent sized bowl (say 10 inch salad bowl sized) out of a 10x10x2-3" blank? I've never really paid that much attention to the thickness but feel I'm doing blanks in the 5ish inch size for my bowl blanks.

Thank you for any education you may bestow on me.

Very generally I tend to take the thickness of the wood and multiply by 3 to get a decent diameter to thickness ratio “for a bowl”.

You need to decide if you want to make a plate, a platter or a bowl. There’s some variation in thicknesses for each.

In my opinion a 2-3” thick blank would make a decent 10-12” platter, or some might call it a shallow bowl. Somewhat depends on the design you use.

I tend to like bowls a little deeper, so a 2” thick blank would be more like a 6” bowl. As @djg mentions above you might also want to add .25 - .5” in thickness for a tenon and foot and still have a 2” deep bowl.

I also agree with @Mr. Peet that slabs are the way to go if you have the resources. I use a chain saw to lop off sections from 3-4” thick slabs (some 16-20” wide x 8’) when I need a few blanks and then process further on the bandsaw.

 

[TimR]

One thing you can do to preserve as much of the finished height is to glue a waste block on. That not only preserves the wood you want from the blank, it also gives you a potentially tougher wood to chuck onto.

 

[Jonkou]

For bowl blanks you can’t go wrong with the standard ratios of 1/3 to 2/3 (3x9, 4x12) and/or phi (1 to 1.618)

 

[Mike1950]

I seal the log ends. Mill as soon a possible. Then reseal the plank ends. The last 3-7" inches often check, but being in plank, centers often hold well. Air dry outside covered from rain + and direct sun. Once the moisture meter says blank time, cut and seal them. Works good for soft maples, most birches and cherries, so-so for hard maples, well for Basswood not well for Service berry and Black locust. Service and B. locust seem to only work when 1/4 sawn. Kind of a regional thing and your weather is much like ours.

Agree- less cracking. probably works up to 4" after 4" thick it takes a very long time to dry-even here where summer is 90-100 and 20 or below humidity...