West Michigan Woodturners spotlight bowl-from-a-board demo by Glen Brown

West Michigan Woodturners put Glen Brown’s bowl-from-a-board demo at the center of its June 24, 2026 update, and the choice fit the club’s stated focus on education and advancing the art and science of turning. BFAB, the shorthand for bowl from a board, is the kind of technique that gives members something immediately usable to study: a flat board goes in, a three-dimensional bowl comes out.

What sets BFAB apart from standard bowl turning is the path from stock to form. Instead of starting with a log or green blank and letting the grain and shape of a rough bowl blank dictate the result, the method cuts concentric rings at an angle and stacks them to build the vessel. A 2024 handout by Al Miotke describes the approach as a long-used way to produce low-cost functional bowls, with the key challenge resting on layout, especially the ring angle and diameter needed to achieve the desired shape and adequate wall thickness.

That makes Brown’s demo more than a club date on the calendar. It is a practical lesson in how layout, angle, ring construction and finishing work together, which is exactly the kind of problem-solving turners can take back to the shop. The method especially suits makers who want repeatable forms, more control over material selection and a way to work with drier, more stable lumber instead of depending entirely on logs and green blanks.

The technique also scales in ways that appeal to a working turner. Woodturner’s Resource describes BFAB as adaptable to many sizes, including a 16-inch bowl built from a 40-piece segmented flat disk. Detroit Area Woodturners has also compared approaches, noting that a bandsaw method can be easier with a circle-cutting jig, while a Ring Master setup is fast, can make duplicate rings and must be aligned correctly.

Brown’s demo arrived during a month when the larger turning world was already focused on technique sharing. The American Association of Woodturners held its 40th International Woodturning Symposium June 4-7, 2026, at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, underscoring how central demonstrations remain to the craft. West Michigan Woodturners’ June update landed in that same conversation, with a simple message hidden inside a short club notice: a flat board, a careful layout and a stack of rings can still teach a lot about how bowls get made.