DIY World Market Double Wall Shaving Bowl

[Phoenix70]

Hello everyone. I've been lurking here for a while, reading up on old threads for advice. I saw this bowl in the 0.5Qt (1 pint) size at my local World Market the other day on sale, and decided to pick it up. It's a high quality stainless steel bowl, and very rigid. My very unscientific estimates place the thickness of the steel to be 1mm on all sides, and the bowl appears to be a nearly continuous solid piece. I went down the the liquor store and bought a flask funnel, and then using a Dremel and drill, drilled a hole in the top of the bowl to place the funnel in. I'm planning on using my water kettle tomorrow to fill it up to keep my lather warm, and thought that this might be of interest to a few of you here on the forums. Total cost of this project for the materials was about $15, though I will say that drilling out the hole took quite a bit of work, the steel is very hard, and very smooth so I had quite a bit of trouble getting a hole started. My largest bit wasn't quite large enough to fit the funnel either, so I enlarged it with a grinding bit from the dremel. Here's a few pictures of the project:

I've only just finished it tonight, so I won't get a chance to use it until tomorrow, but I see no reason why it shouldn't work very well, as metal is an excellent heat conductor. Hopefully someone else can find a good use for this.

 

[I Like it Shaved]

Hello everyone. I've been lurking here for a while, reading up on old threads for advice. I saw this bowl in the 0.5L size at my local World Market the other day on sale, and decided to pick it up. It's a high quality stainless steel bowl, and very rigid. My very unscientific estimates place the thickness of the steel to be 1mm on all sides, and the bowl appears to be a nearly continuous solid piece. I went down the the liquor store and bought a flask funnel, and then using a Dremel and drill, drilled a hole in the top of the bowl to place the funnel in. I'm planning on using my water kettle tomorrow to fill it up to keep my lather warm, and thought that this might be of interest to a few of you here on the forums. Total cost of this project for the materials was about $15, though I will say that drilling out the hole took quite a bit of work, the steel is very hard, and very smooth so I had quite a bit of trouble getting a hole started. My largest bit wasn't quite large enough to fit the funnel either, so I enlarged it with a grinding bit from the dremel. Here's a few pictures of the project:

I've only just finished it tonight, so I won't get a chance to use it until tomorrow, but I see no reason why it shouldn't work very well, as metal is an excellent heat conductor. Hopefully someone else can find a good use for this.

Nice bowl! I think the fact that metal is a good conductor makes it a worse material in this particular situation because the heat will dissipate from the water faster than it would with ceramic. However, the difference is probably negligible and it will work fine.

 

[jwhiskercut]

Nice!!! I would love to make one, but I'm pretty sure the 'local' world market for me would be a 5-6 hour drive.

Nice looking project. Looks like it will work well!

 

[Phoenix70]

You can also order them online from the link in my first post, but of course then you'll pay shipping.

As for the heat dissipation, I plan on setting the bowl in my sink, and pouring the remaining water in the kettle around it to try to minimize heat lost to the environment.

I also added another hole on the other side to make pouring water out of it easier when I'm done, like you'd do on a can of condensed milk or something.

 

[Vlad]

I'm going to have to look for that at Walmart. If it's the right size, it would be just my style of a scuttle.

 

[Phoenix70]

Here's a shot with my brush (a C&E Best Badger) for a size reference.

 

[Blue-EyedSon]

That is very creative. Thanks for sharing your idea. Be sure to post some of your thoughts about how it performs.

 

[jwhiskercut]

You can also order them online from the link in my first post, but of course then you'll pay shipping.

As for the heat dissipation, I plan on setting the bowl in my sink, and pouring the remaining water in the kettle around it to try to minimize heat lost to the environment.

I also added another hole on the other side to make pouring water out of it easier when I'm done, like you'd do on a can of condensed milk or something.

Thanks for the link. My tire eyes missed the link last night. Let us know how this works out. I might have to spring for one, if it holds heat well

 

[GLteam]

Awesome idea!

 

[Phoenix70]

Okay, did my first shave with it this morning. Short answer: I like it.

I boiled a kettle of water before my shower, filling up the inside of the walls and the interior of the bowl, where I placed my shaving brush, then set another kettle on to boil while I showered. When I got out, I emptied it and filled it up again with the new water, and started building a lather. I've recently switched to soaps so I'm still getting the hang of working with those, but one thing I noticed right off is that the bowl is so smooth (it's chrome plated I believe, which explains why it's so hard to drill through), that as I whipped the lather, instead of sticking to the sides or spilling over the edge, it slid right back to the bottom every time. There's simply nothing for the lather to gain any hold on.

The lather itself was piping hot when I applied to to my face, although the brush didn't hold the heat for very long, but that's no fault of the bowl (I've been meaning to get a new brush anyway when the money comes). I did two passes, and at the end when I drained the water the bowl was still much too hot to touch, so I had to run it under cold water for a minute so that I could drain it. Overall, I'd recommend this to anyone who's looking for an inexpensive, high quality stainless steel scuttle. It works very well for me, although as always your satisfaction may vary.

 

[ixtapalapaquetl]

If you could set the bowl in an insulator, this would be just about perfect. The problem now is that heat from the water leaves the system in two directions: one usefully into the lather, and another wastefully through the other side of the bowl. If the heat leaving the system through the outer wall could be minimized, the bulk of it would be redirected through the lather. This would yield longer warmth or lower water temperatures.

 

[PIPS]

OP, you would think that the bowl would get pretty hot to touch once filled with hot water. How was it ??