How to make a bamboo bowl blank

[skovian]

Hello Everyone,

I like the look of turned, laminated bamboo. Has anyone made a bowl blank for this? I was thinking maybe gluing bamboo flooring together. Would you use epoxy or wood glue? Do you have a better idea other than "don't"?

Thanks

 

[Super Dave]

I once used a bamboo cutting board, It worked for me.

Dave

 

[toyotaman]

Have you thought about getting some dry bamboo and cutting it to different lengths and putting it in a mold and adding some PR resin and making a bowl with it once it cures.

 

[randyrls]

Have you thought about getting some dry bamboo and cutting it to different lengths and putting it in a mold and adding some PR resin and making a bowl with it once it cures.

This was featured in Woodturning Design, and there was a photo of it in in the AAW magazine within the last year or so. The bowl created had an "eye" in the bottom of the bowl.

 

[toyotaman]

Yep. That was the one that came to mind.

 

[firewhatfire]

Bamboo 5 x 5 x 2 Bowl Turning Blanks: Pack of 2 at Penn State Industries

 

[skovian]

Thanks for the replies.

I have not read that article but see that it's available in a back issue. That's not quite the look I'm going for. I just want a blank that looks like pressed bamboo. I need to make a bowl that's about 4"-5" deep so the blank from Penn State won't fit the bill. So it's looking like either several cutting boards or maybe a package of flooring will do. Would you glue it with epoxy or Tite-Bond?

Thanks

 

[Fibonacci]

Thanks for the replies.

I have not read that article but see that it's available in a back issue. That's not quite the look I'm going for. I just want a blank that looks like pressed bamboo. I need to make a bowl that's about 4"-5" deep so the blank from Penn State won't fit the bill. So it's looking like either several cutting boards or maybe a package of flooring will do. Would you glue it with epoxy or Tite-Bond?

Thanks

I have used titebond with bamboo cutting boards. Just make sure you sand the polish off both sides before trying to glue it up.

Another option would be to buy the two-pack from PSI and just glue those two blanks together. You could even rotate them 90 degrees to get an interesting pattern in the final product. It would save you a LOT of glue and time.

 

[alamocdc]

Michael, for a bowl blank, I'd probably be more inclined to use a polyurethane glue like Gorilla glue to bind the flooring pieces to make a bowl blank. But that's just me.

 

[skovian]

What kind of glue do they use to make things like cutting boards and flooring?

 

[Joe S.]

It could get expensive, and it's probably impractical. But I wonder if you could do a segmenting job on bamboo pen blanks? It would have an interesting look.

 

[NewLondon88]

You should be able to make a bowl blank out of one piece of wood,
see if this helps..

 

[alamocdc]

What kind of glue do they use to make things like cutting boards and flooring?

I'm not sure about flooring, but I use Waterproof Titebond for cutting boards.