Oak Fruit Bowl

I turned a fruit bowl out of oak (from the same tree as the platters) as a gift for my grandfather for his 90th birthday.

This was the first project where I got to use a speed reducer on the Shopsmith, so it took me some extra time to set it up and figure out how it works.

Shopsmith’s website has had the speed reducer out of stock for a couple years, so I called customer service and they said they don’t make them anymore. I’ve been hunting for one online since I started turning bowls last fall, and my eBay alert finally went off for one at a decent price (while I was in the hospital of all places), so I bought it right away.

The speed reducer provides a 7:1 speed reduction ratio. So, instead of its usual 700 to 5200 rpm speed range, the effective range is from 100 to 5200 rpm. This makes turning large blanks and roughing off-center stock much safer. At the initial stages of turning the platters, the lathe was starting to hop around like a washing machine with a comforter all shoved in one side. Pretty nerve wracking. Most standard lathes can go down to between 50 and 150 rpm, so if you plan on using your old Shopsmith Mark V primarily as a lathe, it is worth tracking down a speed reducer.

So, with the speed reducer connected and clamped down, I roughed out the round-ish blank I cut on the bandsaw at around 100 rpm, then shaped the bottom of the bowl and cut a mortise at around 300 rpm.

Then I removed the speed reducer and put the bowl in the Nova chuck with the jaws inside the mortise to hollow out the bowl.

I was doing this after Charlie went to bed one night, but I had to stop mid-hollowing because it was getting late and I was getting tired. You’ve got to be alert and focused when pushing a sharp piece of metal into a piece of wood rotating at high speed.

I picked it up again two days later. The bowl had warped slightly from drying, but I had enough left to take off that it didn’t matter much. In less than an hour I finished hollowing, shaping, and sanding the bowl. (I sanded with 80 > 120 > 220 > 320 > 0000 steel wool). Then I applied a coat of Tried & True Original and let it dry on the lathe overnight.

The next day I turned the lathe on to give the bowl a quick buff with 0000 steel wool, then took it off and put a but of finish in the mortise.

All done and ready to gift!