I hate making the same thing twice!  Yeah, I’ve done it, but usually it’s been by accident when I make something and then remember later that I’ve actually made something very similar before.  Lately, I’ve been working through a bunch of birch logs that my daughters helped me procure.  For this one, it had the same striking grain pattern as the others, needed a little epoxy, like the others, and would end up being about the same size.  As I started the turning the blank, deja’ vu started to creep in, but what to do?

After looking at the wood, I decided that I’d try to make a footed bowl, which I’ve never done before.  To do this, the bottom of the bowl has to be made into a ring, then pieces of the ring are removed until just the feet remain.  Sounds easy, right?  Well, not so right!  My high school geometry teacher would have shook his head in disgust as I was trying to figure out how to find the exact three points on the circle that would make the legs equidistant from each other.  (Sorry, Mr. Zoerb!)   I finally remember the geometry take home packet we did, where the radius of a circle can be used to make six points on the circle, then I just erased every other one.  Problem solved!

I started out using a Dremel to remove the excess wood, but even with the most aggressive bit that I own, it was taking way too long and the edge looked like it had been gnawed out by beavers.  A quick trip to Farm and Fleet showed me that a 60 grit flap sanding wheel is just as aggressive, but it’s much easier to control and leaves a somewhat smooth edge.  I mounted it in a drill press and started again.  MUCH better!  Once the shape of the legs was done, all I had to do was run through the grits by hand up to 600, then apply some lacquer as a finish, and the final project was done.  Not sure I’ll make another one of these, but if I do, the legs won’t be nearly as long and they’ll be much smaller, like tiny little points that the bowl will sit on.

Here’s the final product: