A foot in the door.

I had an idea a couple of nights ago and had to try it out. This was the first opportunity to give it a shot. I started by cutting a piece of Birdseye maple from the veneer log core I got a couple weeks ago. It's only 6" diameter so I was very limited in size but the quality of the wood made up for the lack of size. The piece was ripped in half to give me 2 blanks 6" diameter, 6 1/2" long, and 3" deep.












I marked the center on both sides and mounted it between centers. The drive center is a 1" diameter Woodriver multi tooth drive center (stebcenter). The live center the Jet live center that came with my lathe.  It's nearly identical to the Oneway live center.













The outside shaped and a tenon turned so the inside can be hollowed. I have not sanded yet, the finish is straight off the gouge. I love the look of the Birdseye, unfortunately it doesn't show up very well on what will become the rim or on the end grain.












The bowl was flipped around and mounted in the chuck.  The rim was shaped, and the center is now ready to be hollowed out. The blank wasn't quite big enough to core, and even if it was a little bigger the Birdseye is much less pronounced as the diameter gets smaller.











After hollowing the inside of the bowl was sanded before flipped around again and mounted on my vacuum chuck. The tenon was removed, a small recess turned, and the outside sanded smooth. The vacuum drum I'm using here is a 3" PVC pipe coupler.












The inside of the finished bowl. The rim is under cut significantly so it's not as heavy as it appears. The under cut rim made sanding difficult so the interior isn't as smooth as I would like. Such is life.

Bottom view, this is where my idea came to fruition. Turning the collar for my recent hollow form gave me the idea that I could do the same thing for a foot. I followed the same process as I did for the collar, except instead of fitting it for the opening in the hollow form I fit it for the recess I turned in the bottom. The wood for the ring is Desert Ironwood.

Profile view. The foot gives it lift, the color gives it contrast, and it's a nice surprise for the buyer when they flip it over to see the extra effort put into making the piece special.

Here's my sketch from this evening, before I headed out to the shop.  The shape is different on the outside than what I had drawn but the overall effect is exactly what I had envisioned when I thought of using the collar as a foot.