# high speed wooden bowl turning



## imagineero (Jul 6, 2013)

I've looked at a lot of vids of guys turning wooden bowls by hand and it always struck me as incredibly wastefull and time consuming. Saw this today and it blew me away!

A Child's Wooden Bowl - YouTube


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## playsk8r (Jul 13, 2013)

WHat do you have against turners who turn by "hand". It takes less skill and practice to operate a copy lathe, than turn with gouges and scrapers on a "manual lathe". now to operate it efficiently, that's a whole different ball game. The only problem I have with mass production turning is that it takes away from the uniqueness of the object. If I turn five bowls, all from the same slab of ash, I end up with 5 different pieces, each unique, with their own flaws, shape, character and beauty. Now try to do that with a copy lathe.:eek2:


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## imagineero (Jul 14, 2013)

You're sounding a bit defensive there mate ;-)

I know it's not very artistic doing repeat work like that, but then roughing out a huge chunk of wood and getting into round isn't very artistic either. It's just a waste of time, energy and timber. The way they take the middle out of the bowls in these vids means that you could turn something else from the middle portion, which is less early braking than turning it all to chips f you've got a really nice piece.


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## qweesdraw (Aug 2, 2013)

It seems the wood being used is in the Poplar family.(probably Aspen or Cottonwood)
There is a lot of it around!
Although it is considered a hardwood it is a very soft hardwood.
Not the best firewood,it does put out heat though.
Sometimes it is used for furniture,it has a nice grain but not that of more premium hardwoods.
It usually ends up in landfills as a crap wood!
I would be certain that the unused wood does go into firewood of some sort since it is split.
Aspen is also used to make toothpicks.
I bought a lathe to stop burning so many slabs from my sawmill.
It's amazing what you can do on a lathe that will outlast the wood stove or the landfill that will last.
So this gent is basically making chicken soup from chicken s**t.
Hopefully now you have a different view on it now Mate.
Mark


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## playsk8r (Aug 2, 2013)

I have nothing against center saving(which by the way is a brilliant system) , I just don't like copy lathe turning. 

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2


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## Dave Boyt (Aug 4, 2013)

It is a matter of art vs. function. There is no way hand turners could meet the demand for wooden bowls, and there is no way a production bowl would be considered a work of art. If you hand turn a piece of wood that was headed for the wood stove, then burn the scrap, you still have better utilization than if you had just burned it. An artist could just take a picture of a bowl fruit, and a sculptor could pour clay into a mold. Both would be using their time and material more efficiently. So why don't they?


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