🍲 Bowl Segment Calculator
Calculate the miter angle, segment length, and outer edge width for a segmented ring used in segmented bowl turning.
What This Calculator Does
Segmented woodturning builds bowl rings out of angled wood staves glued edge to edge. This calculator gives the miter angle to cut each segment and the outer/inner edge widths for a given ring diameter and segment count.
The Formula
Each segment spans an equal slice of the circle, so the angle at the center of the ring per segment is 360° / n, and each segment is cut at half that angle from square — miter angle = 180° / n — on each side of the board. The outer edge width of each segment is the chord length 2R × sin(180° / n), and the inner edge width uses the same formula with the inner radius (outer radius minus stave thickness).
This is the standard method segmented turners use to plan rings before cutting. Always cut a test segment first to confirm your saw’s angle setting matches, since small errors compound around a full ring.