Scroll Saw Bowls

[rfielder]

Has anyone made a scroll saw bowl using only plywood?

Just wonder how it would look, and how durable it is.  I would be using baltic birch plywood.

[don in brooklin on]

I have made the Wobble Bowl from Steve's catalogue in 1/4 BB.  I looks okay.  In fact good enough for 40 to be added to the Daddy do list.  My daughter wants to give to her teachers in her school this Christmas.  She is the principal.

They to look better in real wood but BB is okay,

Also, attached is a picture of a swirl bowl in BB.

PS:  These are actually baskets.  Bowls hold soup.  Baskets leak. 

I know I did a real bowl in plywood 1/2 and it was just okay,  A Carole Rothman design. 

[Gary Beasley]

Ive seen stacked ring bowls cut from plywood with a scrollsaw posted in forums, with good quality ply they come out pretty nice.

[rfielder]

Just to be clear - I am asking about bowls, not baskets.  I have done a couple of baskets in Baltic Birch, and they looked good.

Not intending to hold soup!  More decorative, maybe hold candies or suchlike at this point.

I get the impression that Baltic Birch might be OK, but solid wood is better.  Since the next bowl I make needs to be wider, it will have to wait until I can get some wider wood.  Only stuff I have right now that could be edge jointed to make a wider board are cedar and basswood, and I don't want to use those.

Just finished my first bowl in ash, and it was OK finished with tung oil, but using 1/4" walls meant it would have been paper thin had I sanded out all traces of the drill holes.

[jklingel]

Yes, a few. They look fine to me; nothing exotic, but interesting. I like the alternating colors you get from different laminations when oiled. I use cabinet grade plywood and also use ply glued to solid wood for an interesting, to me, look.

[Gary Beasley]

If the drill holes are causing you problems you can use a trick bandsaw box makers use. Start from the outside of the pattern and find a spot the grain is oriented in the right direction and make a cut following the grain to the next cut in the pattern. When you glue the cut back together it will be all but invisible and if you cut the next ring in a different spot across it the cuts will not create any weak spots in the bowl either.