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140 Posts
I made a jig to cut my blanks round before I put them on the lathe.
That wouldn’t work in my case. My lathe is small and will only turn 12.5” over center and I am turning 12” bowls.I don't recommend you try this at home. But I found out that if you put a rough, out of balance, blank in the lathe, turn the lathe on, then use a hand power planer, to make the piece perfectly round in about 5 seconds. Loads of fun.
I'm very fortunate in that I have a friend, a professional turner, who lives close by and was introduced to me by a member who lives in England! he has kept me supplied with bowl blanks plus lots more for FREE, all that I have given him in return besides friendship is lessons on the finer points of hand held plunge routing.That wouldn’t work in my case. My lathe is small and will only turn 12.5” over center and I am turning 12” bowls.
Thank you Rusty. I'll feel safer (and cut a better circle!) using s jig like this.Just a couple of bar clamps. If you look at the last picture you can barely see a little bit of one of the clamps on the left side.