# Making a wooden bowl to perfectly match a glass one?



## Katie279 (Oct 14, 2012)

Hi all,

Parents in law have a legendary home-staple they make that is in effect a glass bowl of mince, pasta and veg topped with cheese. To finish it's cooked in the grill so the cheese bubbles and starts to char. They eat this every Saturday without fail, so very much a staple meal!

As a result, the glass bowls are always very hot and require kitchen towels, gloves etc to eat them which causes risks of spillage, burns etc.

Figured therefore, a neat solution I could make as a gift would be to have a wooden outer bowl that you could drop the glass bowl into and that'd mean you could eat happily away with it on your lap in the lounge or on a table with no risk of burning etc.

Great idea huh?? 

*The Problem!*
Am trying to think how I can make a wooden bowl to perfectly match a glass bowl - I'd plan to buy four or six so they had a set and would need to create matching wooden bowls for this. 

These bowls don't need to be anything fancy, just simple shapes, ie something like:
http://tesco.scene7.com/is/image/tesco/212-3299_PI_TPS1201594?wid=2000&hei=2000

Can anyone think of the best way I can approach this? Part of me thinks a lathe will be required (excuse for a new tool!), but can't quite figure how to reliably reproduce the shape several times.

Am wondering if any other smarter ways to make this? (doesn't even need to be a bowl within a bowl if you've got a better way of making a heatproof way to hold it)

Any bright ideas???


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

Lathe and practice should have you reproducing the shape pretty well. They do make copy carvers for lathes, but I don't believe I've ever seen one used on a bowl


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## 4DThinker (Mar 13, 2013)

Wood will expand/contract ... distort as humidity changes. A wood bowl that fits over a hot glass bowl will surely split/crack as the heat dries it out.


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## 44260 (Aug 29, 2013)

How about a flat round base, drill a series of blind holes around the perimeter, glue dowel rods vertically in the holes to form a wall around the outside. then make a round ring with blind holes to glue to top of the dowels. Basically you will end up with a wooden bowl that the glass bowls will sit in but the wall of the wooden bowl will be made of dowel rods.


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## igster (Oct 31, 2013)

Or drill a circle of holes at an angle to match the bowl sides, and insert dowels in the holes. Now you have a flat base with a ring of dowels coming out at an angle, that cradle the glass bowl.


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

When you figure out how to duplicate them it might be a good idea to make them just a bit shorter than the bowls so you can hang on to the top rim of the glass bowl with a pot holder as you drop them into the wooden container.
Using a bowl profile template for the inside and a profile template for the outside design you should be able to get them all reasonably similar.


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## Maylar (Sep 3, 2013)

Turning a set of identical bowls with a specific inside profile would be a challenge even for an experienced turner. Rather than the dowel method mentioned, I would consider making a compound angled multi sided "bowl" without the lathe.


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## igster (Oct 31, 2013)

I've seen a couple videos on YouTube where they made bowls with a scroll saw...tilting the work surface at an angle and cut a series of increasing or decreasing circles, then gluing hem together.


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## GeneT (Feb 24, 2014)

dustyshop said:


> doesn't even need to be a bowl within a bowl


 If you could find bowls with a rim on them then a simple cylinder would suffice then you wouldn't have to worry about matching the contour of the bowl.


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## DST (Jan 10, 2011)

Yep a bowl with a rim would certainly be simple. Would still want the lathe. Do you have a turning club near you?


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## DST (Jan 10, 2011)

actually it all sounds like a fun challenge. Where are you located


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## jackthelumberjacker (Dec 6, 2014)

igster said:


> I've seen a couple videos on YouTube where they made bowls with a scroll saw...tilting the work surface at an angle and cut a series of increasing or decreasing circles, then gluing hem together.


Can you point me towards those videos? Would be great to take a look at them


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## igster (Oct 31, 2013)

Here's one...the same dude has a few more also: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gnQr2D0etuw

They can be done either on a scroll saw or a bandsaw.


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