If you were to take a board of about 7" width and 15" long and it was 1" thick, After planing or sanding to a smooth surface, thickness not being real important, How would you "dish out" the center of the board, to make a serving dish, of about 3/8th's or so deep? A quick way would be best??
An angle grinder with a sanding pad and 36 grit disc should rough it out pretty quick. Then go to a palm sander with progressively finer paper, rub in mineral oil, and coat generously with nachos. 8)
Harold,
A router worked good . A flat bit for the inside and one that is rounded for the outside of the hallowed out part.
I would think about doing it on a radial arm saw, mounting it to a jig like a "lazy susan". Great care that the saw doesn't grab the wood and drag your fingers in while the piece goes flying across the room.
Or, if that doesn't fly with what you like, then maybe mount a router on a yoke that will allow the router (with a dado cutter) to rock on the path you want (like a bell swinging). Then mount the "tray" on a jig-like lazy susan to control the routed path by degrees in the various directions you want to cut out.
I have to confess I have not done this exact thing, but came close years ago trying to shape gun stocks with a router. A duplicating lathe would have been much better, and I had to give up the project.
I have seen (but don't remember where) some table saw tricks where this type of wood removal was done on chair seats. I will search for that. :P
So far, I have thought of all the ideas presented. I even thought of a rubber pad sander with a coarse grit. Keep the ideas coming. I have done a fair amount of woodworking, but, this is different. :)
A tool that is sold with the specific purpose of doing stuff like this is the Log Wizard. It is that de-barker tool that goes on the end of a chainsaw. An old-timer friend of mine uses one to "carve" dough bowls.
http://www.logwizard.com/
The first tool that comes to my mind is a scorp....but then again, I've been on a hand tool kick lately. These babies aren't cheap, at least not the hand forged ones that Barr sells at www.barrtools.com the one he sells goes for $125. You may be able to find a cheaper one from Lee Valley or some other place that sells woodworking tools. I'm very impressed with the framing chisel I bought from Barr :)
Harold,
Belt sander would work but you would have to clamp that board down real good. :o
Put a router bit in the milliing machine and hack that sucker away. If I had a mill I would do that. You probably would want to turn off the flood coolant system as your food may acquire a funny taste. ::) Unless you replace the coolant with mineral oil ;D
Jason
Jason. I use drain oil for lube-coolant on the milling machine!! :D :D :D I DO have a drill press that would work though. Good idea !! ;D
If you have a tablesaw, you can take shallow cuts across the blade. Take the fence off and clamp two boards on the tablesaw top for your board to ride in. Then raise the blade to take a small bite as you run the board across the blade (USE A PUSHSTICK AND HOLDDOWNS SO YOUR HANDS ARE ALWAYS AWAY FROM THE BLADE). Make several passes, raising the blade a little bit after each pass. Clean up with sandpaper.
As mentioned before, you can also use a router. I would make a template that would lay over the board. You would put a collar into the base to ride against the template. The template will give you a nice smooth even cut. Using a cove bit, go around the template to establish the outline of your platter. Then start removing wood int the middle. You can keep dropping the bit down to give the scooped affect. Clean it up with heavy grit sandpaper, working to finer grits for finish.
The scorp and the side grinder are also good ideas too. I'd probably opt for the scorp first. The side grinder might be too rough. Many a bread bowl was made with a scorp back in the old days.
I saw an interesting tool at the woodworking store a few weeks ago - designed for rough carving and shaping.
It was a wheel designed to go on the typical 4" angle grinder. It had chain saw teeth on the perimeter. I picked it up and looked at it, womdering if I could fabricate one....looks pretty simple, just afraid of all of that speed ::)
Captain
Captain,
I have a friend that bought one of those. Says it's hard to control, but it really hogs out the wood.
Those wheels are used by wood carvers that do yard statues and ornaments and such, down here.
I would send it to my son and doughter-in-law who are missionaries in Haiti. They have some native Hatians who are great wood carvers. I have purchased a number of their platters and bowls. All of the work is done by hand, with tools they make themselves. All of the sanding is done by hand as well as sawing out the shape of the container. Most of you folks will appreciate the next item they use. A Woodmizer bandsaw. I am not aware of what model they have, but from what pictures I have seen it is a bit on the old side.
I was thinking of the table saw as well, since you were interested in speed...the scorp wouldn't be too quick. That's a great way to make cove moulding, but in order to make a dish you would need to make a plunge cut, and I'd hate to do that on a cove cut, plus the front and back of the cuts would be angled (but then you could clean it up with hand tools 8))
I used to try and make mortise and tenon joints entirely from power tools, but soon realized that a much better fit (and sense of satisfaction) could be achieved by dressing up the oversized tenons with a nice sharp chisel. Still make all my mortises with drill bits and chisels ;D
There are obviously woodworkers in this forum full of ideas.I use tablesaw don't raise blade over 1/8 inch at a time,clamp stop block so you don't get to close to end,I have a piece of alum rectangle tube i set at a angle to vary width of coveand clamp a sliding holddown onto this fence so board cannot jump up.don't like using radial arm for this type of thing unless its well clamped.
and agree with router ideas what I do with router is router mounted to table shim so router bit is at an angle or just clean out inside then take a large v bit and go around outside edge of depression so i don't have as much to clean up.
I'd also vote router. Using a piece of 1/4" lexan or plexiglas, make a template of the shape you want to carve out. Lexan works better, it isn't as brittle. Guide collars are commonly available to match your router. Make sure there are no openings in the template bigger than your router base, (you can use a larger base) and rout to depth. The guide collar will keep you coloring within the lines.
The scorp would probably work for 3/8" depth, but it works much better for cleaning up marks left by an adze, such as in Windsor chair bottoms.
Harold,
The router and large baseplate idea is probably the most accurate method presented, however, for a one off unit, I would probably hog most of the wood out using a large (3") forstner drill bit w/ depth stop mounted in the drill press. Then I would use a carbide burr mounted in my die grinder to clean up and finally some sanding followed with a rubbed oil finish.
--Rick