Before mounting the blank bring up the live center in the tail stock to check that it and the screw are centered, first turn on lathe lowest speed , take magic marker or such and just touch the end of screw to leave as small a dot as you can. Now screw in the LC till is close enuf to see if they align very close to their centers, if not you will need to adjust the ts so that it does, if you have a moveable head stock you may have to adjust both on the side to side, if the ts is lower than the hs you will need to shim up the ts using metal shim material , ie, foil, pie plate , or laminated shim stock , remember the shim needs to be as large ( width and length)  as the base of the ts so it does not rock and roll or try to tilt.If all is good procede.

 

In pic #1 the top pic, find the center of the blank as best you can, I use a home made center finder from a triangle square with a stick bolted on the 45 deg angle mark, I go around the blank in 2-4 places marking a line mid point to get a general idea of where to drill. Drill the hole 3/4'' deep as the chuck will protrude 3/4'' beyond the chuck face.Drill 1/4'' for wet wood, 5/16'' for dry wood.( default is what ever the manufacturer recommends)

In pic #2 screw the blank on to the chuck. keep as even as you can.

In pic #3 bring blank up flush and tighten down pretty tight.

In pic #4 bring up the live center and make it snug.

rotate by hand to make sure feels snug.

turn on lathe low speed to check , if feels loose. snug more if needed.

On smaller blanks ( under 10 inches) I spin first ( hit start / stop quickly or jog or bump it over a couple times )  before bringing up ts to see if wabbling too bad and if so check to make sure all is snug.

You can now begin to rough out your blank. I normally get my outside shape and the bottom done, by this time blank should be pretty smooth, I will remove the ts from the lathe and cut in my mortise or recess, I hardly ever us a tennon on my blanks as they require another step to remove.( either a jam chuck once the bowl is done , you reverse the bowl again using a jam chuck and the ts to hold while you remove the tennon . or a vacumn system which is very expensive to hold the bowl then turn off the tennon )

Pic 5

Now I will sand to finish (120 grt , 220 grt, and finally 320 grt and brown paper bag polish)  the sides and bottom of the blank, sand smooth the recess , sign it , type of wood then put first coat of finish over the whole outside, reverse it on the chuck and start removing the interior of the bowl.