Furniture

The right way to Flip a Serving Dish

March 11, 2025 Our Editors 0 Comments

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After I was working as in-house turner for the Vermont woodworking and ceramic artisans ShackletonThomas, I made scores of dishes and platters in cherry and walnut. They had been easy types with a single bead on the rim. I all the time admired the class and utility of these designs, and this serving dish is impressed by them. Right here I’ve used bubinga, selecting it for its hardness, sturdiness, and—with this specific inventory—for its marvelous quilting, chatoyant grain, and good pure coloration. This isn’t a fancy piece to show, however to make it actually sing, the surfaces must be tremendous clear and the transitions and particulars extraordinarily crisp.

Aspect one

Start by bandsawing a round clean between 9 in. and 11 in. throughout. Then screw a faceplate to what would be the prime of the dish. The screws ought to protrude from the faceplate at the very least 1/8 in. lower than the depth of the dish’s hole. Right here I added a spacer beneath the faceplate to compensate for the size of the screws I had available. After mounting the clean on the lathe, true up the perimeter and flatten each faces.

**True the perimeter.** A 5/8-in. swept-back bowl gouge, making passes towards the headstock, shortly trues the perimeter of the clean.

**Flatten the underside face.** Once more utilizing a 5/8-in. swept-back bowl gouge, true the underside face of the dish clean.

**True the within.** Monaco makes use of a wing of the 5/8-in. swept-back bowl gouge to shear scrape the opposite face of the clean.

**Preparing for a recess.** With each faces flat, alter a pair of dividers to the diameter of your four-jaw chuck, then switch that measurement to the clean. You’ll flip a recess right here to just accept the chuck.

With the underside of the dish going through out, your subsequent transfer might be to put out the ring-shaped foot. Measure the span of your four-jaw chuck with dividers and switch that dimension to the clean; it will likely be the within diameter of the foot. Use a pencil to mark the skin diameter of the foot. It must be 1/2 in. to 1 in. higher than the foot’s inside diameter. On the sting of the clean, make a pencil mark 1/4 in. from the entrance face; the fabric beneath this line might be eliminated as you flip the ogee-curved underside of the dish.

With a bowl gouge, roughly form the underside face of the dish, utilizing push and pull cuts between the foot and the rim. Earlier than making the ending cuts on the softly sweeping ogee curve, use a square-end scraper to create the recess contained in the foot for the four-jaw chuck. A depth of 1/8 in. is ample. Clear up the ogee curve and minimize any high quality element you want on or contained in the foot. Then apply end to the underside face of the dish.

**Ogee format.** The underside of the dish might be minimize to a shallow, sweeping ogee curve extending from the foot to the rim. In pencil, mark the outer diameter of the foot after which, proper on the rim, make a pencil mark the place the ogee will finish.

**Flip the S-curve.** To start shaping the mild ogee curve, use the nostril of a swept-back bowl gouge, slicing from the rim to the outer fringe of the foot.

**Make a foot to suit the chuck.** The within of the foot is outlined by the scribe line for the four-jaw chuck. Beginning at that line, use a square-end scraper to show a 1/8-in.-deep recess for the chuck. The partitions must be 90° or barely dovetailed.

**Advantageous work contained in the foot.** A small bead or two contained in the recess clothes up the underside of the dish. A 1/2-in. swept-back shallow element gouge does the trick.

**A closing cross.** After finishing the foot, make a finessing cross or two to offer the ogee its closing kind. Monaco right here makes use of a 1-in. spear level with convex wings.

**Midway completed.** With the underside of the dish full, apply mineral oil, wet-sanding by way of the grits from 220 to 600. Buff on wax, however depart the chuck recess unwaxed for now.

Aspect two

**Reverse and remount.** Unscrew the faceplate and remount the dish, becoming your four-jaw chuck in growth mode into the recess you turned contained in the ring-shaped foot.

**Flatten first.** With the dish remounted, retrue its higher face.

After unscrewing the faceplate, remount the workpiece on the four-jaw chuck. Start work on the higher face of the serving dish by truing the entire floor once more. Then make a push minimize from the perimeter inward to determine the broad flat band simply contained in the rim. Roll a small bead proper on the rim with a bowl gouge, then flatten the rim band with a convex square-end scraper.

**Relieve the rim band.** Utilizing the wing of a swept-back bowl gouge, true up the broad, flat rim band.

**Flip the bead.** With the rim band relieved, use a 1/2-in. swept-back shallow element gouge to show the bead and outline the outer fringe of the rim.

**The band will get flat.** A 3/4-in. convex, square-end scraper flattens the rim band and sharpens the nook between the bead and the band.

**Excavating inside out.** Utilizing a 1/2-in. flat-ground inside bowl gouge, start the tough hollowing with cuts close to the center of the dish and transfer outward minimize by minimize.

**Smoothing the cavity exterior in.** With the tough hollowing full, use the inside bowl gouge to make sweeping shear cuts from the rim band towards the center of the hole.

**Remaining finessing.** With the final passes of the inside bowl gouge, be certain that the hole is absolutely clean and almost flat-bottomed.

Lastly, utilizing a 60° inside gouge, start hollowing the dish. Begin on the middle and work your method outward, making your hollowing cuts simply barely deeper than the screw holes for the faceplate. After finishing the hole, wet-sand the higher face with mineral oil, working by way of the grits from 220 to 600, after which, lastly, buff with carnauba wax.

—Matt Monaco turns at residence in Kansas Metropolis, Mo., and teaches turning throughout the nation.

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