The first bowl, I used the woodworm screw that came with my woodriver chuck, but had a bit of a problem in that the bowl would not come off the screw when it was time. I ended up removing the screw from the chuck while still in the bowl, mounting the blank, and then cutting it out as I hollowed the bowl - not too fun.
The second bowl, which came from the half of the crotch piece shown here, I used the spur drive on. Stayed on the lathe without trouble and had the added advantage of my being able to get the bowl off the lathe when done rough turning.
Both bowls basically maxed out my poor HF34706 lathe - it's got a 12" swing and the blanks were both 11.5" in diameter. The first one was round, but had a protrusion on the back that required a little 'adjustment' - basically, I chainsawed off part of the blank while it was on the lathe. Had to do a similar thing on the second, but because it hit the motor behind the headstock. (Why they designed the motor to be there is beyond me... it's always getting in the way and the cooling vent intake is right where sawdust/chips naturally go. Next time I order from PSI, I'm going to pick up one of their extended MT2 spur drives just to get the blank away from the motor.)
Even after chainsawing the protrusion off the first bowl, it started out so wobbly that I considered scrapping it. Persevered and stayed out of the line of fire should it come off and am glad I did. The ash has some curl to it, which really came out when I put it in DNA. The second bowl is in the DNA now and has an awesome section that looks almost like some of the burls I've seen you guys post. There was a rather large chunk of the second one that was completely rotten; thankfully it was in the area hollowed out.
Can't wait for these to dry so I can finish turn them...
Half of the 120-pound chunk of wood the bowls came from:
The first bowl roughed out:
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