Is this too big for my lathe?

[Shan]

The lathe will handle this ok. IF ....
Centre your blank, determine thy OD of the bowl and bandsaw the OD + a machining allowance.
If you don't have a bandsaw, find someone who does.
If you can't centre / balance your blank - don't turn it. It's amazing just how bits can "fly" around - and stand aside !
Once a piece is way out of balance you need serious "holding" and serious machine weight and slow initial speed until you can turn the piece into balance.
Speed can be an issue, but if you are running a little fast, just take finer cuts.

Take on-board the advice. Still attempting to get it balanced as can't slow down the speed of lathe (see above). The lathe is however heavy and bolted to a concrete floor but I know from doing smaller bowls that even slightly out of kilter it feels a bit scary due to the speed. Cheers Shan

 

[Shan]

Until you press the stop button. Then the momentum in the spinning workpiece can loosen it. I always keep the tailstock up as much as I can.

I've dealt with an out of balance blank, too thick for jig saw and before I got a Bandsaw, like this. Get as good as you can with bowsaw or chainsaw, drill a shallow hole in the centre at the mounting end (in your case the midpoint of the faceplate), put a rod or screwdriver sticking up in a vice, balance blank on your little hole and use chalk to mark the heavy point. Use a small axe or whatever you have to hack some wood off there. Repeat, repeat.... Hard work but eventually get something enough in balance to be able to spin at low speed without the lathe wandering across the floor. But only if you really really need to and have plenty of time and energy.

Cheers for that. May go down this road but as everyone points out, spin on low speed which I don't have that option unfortunately. Will attempt to get it as balanced as can by probably using some of the things you pointed out.

 

[HamsterJam]

Thinking to buy a wood carving disc for an angle grinder or even a chain disc.

Hi Shan,
Appreciate you are not in the UK but please read this before you think any further about a chain disc…
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-safety-alert-issued-for-angle-grinder-chainsaw-disc-attachment

 

[SVB]

No reason you can’t drill extra mounting holes in a faceplate - normally case iron so soft / easy to drill.

 

[Shan]

Hi Shan,
Appreciate you are not in the UK but please read this before you think any further about a chain disc…
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-safety-alert-issued-for-angle-grinder-chainsaw-disc-attachment

Noted! I had heard that they could be risky but hadn't seen/read the UK government report. Thanks Shan.

 

[Fergie 307]

How about mounting a router where your tool rest would go and turning your blank by hand slowly using the router to true up blank to round state. Then using same procedure to take some face cuts to true up the blank the other way. Then you have a round blank. Off to the races!

You can also try using a power plane if you have one. Mark the blank with a pencil and then with it firmly clamped just go front to back, keeping the plane at right angles to the face. Work your way round taking it down to your line.