This was a really fun experiment. I have always been fascinated with 3D cutting boards and wanted to try my hand at a 3D bowl. This was my first attempt and it turned out pretty good. While I am really happy with the results, I should note that if you hold it up to the light you can see cracks in the bottom of the bowl, as my angles were close but not perfect. I cut the wood using my miter saw. When I redo this, I will use a table saw and a wedgie sled. I think it will turn out much better.
The following are the steps I took to make this bowl:
When cutting with the miter saw, I used clamps to hold the pieces together and keep them from moving with each cut. Even with the clamps, the cuts were not perfect, though they turned out pretty good.
I dry-fit every cube together and tried to make sure that the grain of the wood was turned correctly. I used rubber bands to hold them together. Once I was satisfied with their placement I glued them together using rubber bands as clamps.
When the individual pieces were glued, I then dry-fit the entire piece together using rubber bands. I had to be extremely careful with the orientation of each block because once it was glued, there was nothing to do to fix a mistake.
Next, I glued the cubes into rows, then the rows to more rows to make the blank. This is where the inaccuracy of the cuts really started to show up.
I mounted the blank between a screw check and a live center and turned a tenon on one side. Then I shaped the outside of the bowl.
I used a drill bit to drill out the center of the bowl in order to set my depth. I don’t do this anymore, but for my first 3D segmented bowl, it seems less risky after all the work that I had already put into the project.
I left the bowl walls quite thick. This was one of my first bowls, and I was concerned about making the walls too thin.
I was very pleased with my first segmented 3D bowl. It looked really good from a distance, even though up close, you can see the cracks in the bottom. Despite its imperfections, my daughter saw this bowl and asked me to make her a clock with the same design.
Here is the clock I made her:
