I milled up a huge Sequoia tree trunk two summers ago with my friend Brian. We got many beautiful slabs out of the tree. We also got many odds and ends and funny shaped pieces. I took one of these pieces and thought I could turn it on the lathe to make a big bowl. I had just gotten my 36 inch J. A. Fay & Egan Co. 950 lighting band saw and was able to cut the Sequoia piece into a circle. I was also able to cut the piece closer to a bowl shape by angling the table on the band saw. I rough turned the bowl and then let it sit for a year. I picked it up again and as I started to finish it, I realized I was going to need a big jaw chuck to hold the bowl so I could work on the bottom. I was also going to need a method to get the surface smooth as the lathe tools were leaving a fuzzy surface in the soft wood. After another year passed, I made large jaws for my lathe chuck out of MDF. These worked great for holding the bowl while turning the bottom. I used my large angle grinder to sand the surface of the bowl while on the lathe. This solved the fuzzy surface problem. In the end, the bowl turned out great. It is 5 inches high and 19.5 inches in diameter.
