Last year I bought a Bowl Saver from Axminster and have used it on a number of occasions. I have watched Colwyn Way’s video, Mike Walt’s and Phil Irons ? for Woodcut and my confusion is with using the depth templates, is the base of bowl arrow positioned on the outside of the rough bowl or where the inside is expected to be after using the bowl saver. The centre of bowl is lined up to the centre of the bolt. When cutting out a third bowl I have ended up with just the tenon in the chuck and all the wall of the bowl in my hand or a “polo” mint from being to shallow. Anybody have any advice please. Obviously I am doing something wrong and don’t feel confident when I get to the third bowl stage.
When watching the Phil Irons video he seemed to line up at the outside of the bowl at one point.
Sorry just to clarify. The first question does the base of bowl arrow point where the tenon meets the bottom of the bowl on the outside.
Hello knighty.
I use a large caliper to measure from the centre of the big bolt to the outside of the bowl at the 9 o’clock position. This should be 20mm from the cutting tip. then use the caliper to measure from base of bowl to centre of bolt. If you have the same distance the cutting tip will arrive 20 mm from bowl base at the end of the cut. Using this method, i have achieved a nest of 5 bowls. I hope this helps, or come back to me and I’ll try again.
Thanks for the reply can I just clarify a couple things please. Hopefully I have followed your method but is the bolt at the centre of the bowl blank ? I then put the blade back into the cutting position and using the measurement on the callipers, I put a mark on the outside of the bowl. From the mark to the outside base of the bowl is the same as the bowl thickness. So it seems it’s happy days. If I am wrong please let me know.
Once again thanks.
You made my brains hurt… at the 3rd reading i think you got it, the bolt doesn’t need to be dead central of bowl blank. If bolt to 9 o’clock is less than radius of blank, . You get a slightly steeper sided bowl… or …if greater than radius, the cutting tip starts to curve away from chuck at end of cut and you can move blade a little out of clamp to help reach. Does that make sense as ive hzd a nightcap.
Thanks for the reply. My brain has hurt from the word go regarding my question 
. Standing at my lathe it was a simple question, do I do it this way or do I do it that way. The problem is putting the question into words so that people can follow what the problem is. It took 4 or 5 attempts and even now I think I could have done better.
Once again thanks for your help I will try your method on a smaller blank.
