Here I'm cutting the edge of the platter so that I round up the blank.
As I write this, if you have any vibration when you first mount
the blank, you should do this before doing any cutting at all.
I'm using an Ellsworth ground bowl gouge laid on it's side. This
allows me to enter the wood (on the right) and to
cut across the blank. In this picture, I've got the handle of
the tool down so it's a finishing shear cut and if I had the
handle cut (parallel with the ground), it would be a roughing
cut. You can see how nice the mahogany in this picture looks
from the shear cut. Very little sanding is needed and I would
probably start with 180 grit.
You can see that I'm now removing the body of this blank to create
my cracker holding area. I'm using a bowl gouge since it's a
faceplate turning.
I like to check regularly the depth of my cutting. I use a double-side
gauge for this purpose. I want to leave about 1/4" when I'm done,
so I've got a little more cutting to do!
Here is the look of my finished cracker holder. I've created a bead
on the outside lip of the platter to match the inside one.
Now we can prepare the foot and finish our project.
Click here to go to Step 5 - Prepare the Foot and Finish the Project
