Subject: Making wooden balls?

From: [email-masked] (Jack Mcbryde)
Date: 7 Dec 1993 04:59:23 GMT

I'm wondering if there is a relatively easy way to make wooden balls. I want
at least several hundred, say 1/2", wooden balls made out of various
exotics hardwoods. (This precludes me from just buying them from some
mail order place.) While cost is a factor, it's not really that major of
a factor. The idea of spending a thousand dollars or so is not horrific.
So far the best idea I've managed to come up with is a metal lathe with
a specially made cutter to cut them. Is there a special machine around to
make such a creature? Or some other cute trick that hasn't crossed my mind?
They need to be pretty uniform, so I don't think that any kind of tumbling
trick in a container lined with sandpaper is going to do what I want.
And I don't have any major problems with fabricating a machine to do what
I want as long as it makes the process of making the balls quick and
painless. 

The real size range I'm interested in making is from 4-6mm to 12-16mm. But
10-12mm is an acceptable size range. Oops. I guess I should clarify.
The sizes need to be uniform, and I'd like to be able to make, minimally,
10mm balls and 12mm balls.

thanks for any ideas,
jack
--
jack      [email-masked]           * All I ask of Thee, Lord
* Christ died for our sins.  Dare we    * Is to be a drinker and fornicator
* make his martyrdom meaningless by     * An unbeliever and a sodomite
* not committing them? - Jules Feiffer  * And then to die. - Claude de Chauvigny

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From: [email-masked] (Michael J. Edelman)
Date: 7 Dec 1993 13:19:41 GMT

In article [email-masked],  [email-masked] (Jack Mcbryde) writes:
>exotics hardwoods...

Something like this popped up in Fine Woodworking some years ago- you should
probably ask the crew in rec.woodworking. However, I recall one solution that 
was purported to work very well:

1. Cut *cubes* of the desired diameter. This is trivially easy.

2. Set up a belt sander horizontally, and build a bottomless wood box the
size of the sanding area on the sander. Attach or suspend it so it sits just
above the belt. Something like this:

            |                 |
            |                 |
Box -->     |                 |
 belt-->   ---------------------
          /                     \
         (0                     0)
          \                     /
            --------------------
      
Turn on the sander and dump the cubes in the box. The will allegedly turn into
balls as the sharp edges sand down quickly. Amazing yet true, claimed the letter
writer.

No guarentees. ;-)

--mike

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From: [email-masked] (John Wishneusky)
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1993 21:49:12 GMT

>10mm balls and 12mm balls.

There are sphere turning attachments for metal lathes.  I'm not sure
about commercial availablity but have seen plans for homemade ones in
places like Home Shop Machinist or Projects in Metal.  There might be
one in one of the Machinist's Bedside Reader series.  Fitting one with
a cutter better suited to wood turning should give the best combination
of precision and finish.

The sphere turning attachments I recall seeing have a mechanical (screw) feed
for sweeping the cutter.  For your wood-turning application, that could be
simplified into a handle that'd manually sweep the cutter through it's full
arc.

John

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From: [email-masked] (Jay Keller)
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1993 09:48:23 GMT

>simplified into a handle that'd manually sweep the cutter through it's full

I worked on a metal lathe for a few months once, at a winery where we made our
own stainless steel wine tanks and winery equipment.  I turned a lot of
ball-ended stainless steel pressure screws with a sphere-turning attachment.

It was expensive, but fairly simple.  A large rigid plate held a pivot
and a C-frame held the cutter.  The axis of rotation of the C-frame would be
set up to intersect the spinning axis of the workpiece and perpendicular to
it.  A long metal handle was used to actually rotate the C-frame and the
cutter, feeding it in gradually to finally get a sphere.  Of course you had
to have a stem on it, which needed to be cut first.  The smaller the stem the
more of a sphere you could make.  We weren;t trying to make full spheres, just
ball ends, about 270 degrees or so with a fairly beefy stem (I started with
1-1/4 SS bolts).

Anyway, the jig is simple and for wood it could be easily made without needing
the tremendous strength the metal-cutting version needed.  

Sorry I don't do ascii art worth a damn...

Jay Keller
Sunnyvale, California

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From: [email-masked] (william thomas powers)
Date: 8 Dec 1993 07:10:35 -0500

This is getting ridiculous: To make wooden spheres---GET A WOOD LATHE--
Most metal lathes I have seen do not turn fast enough to provide a 
good surface. To make the sphere you do not need some fancy jig; just
take a piece of spring steel and grind the desired sphere cross section
into the end then releave the back until you get the proper cutting angle.
You now have a lathe tool that can be plunged into the work cutting a sphere.
The only problem is to deal with parting. I would suggest that you leave
a little wood at the ends, (don't plunge all the way, or design the cutter
to not cut it free). So you can sand it while turning and if you are good
make a whole string of spheres on a piece before cutting them. After
they are cut just touch up the cut ends on a belt sander and you're done.

Have you tried rec.crafts.woodworking?

Thomas
Columbus, OH

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From: [email-masked] (John C. Schultz)
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 93 04:05:50 GMT

Sorry if this has been posted already but I just recalled the
reference.

Fine Woodworking. Sep/Oct 1986, p 76. 

Turning balls by Ernie Conover.

Make a chuck bland to mount directly on the lathe spindle (or a
faceplate) and cut out a hole for the desired sized ball.  Taper it 2
degrees (i.e. smallest at the opening).  Turn a cylinder and mark the
pole, equator and end line.  Mount cylinder in chuck. (Chalk increases
the grip.)

Using a gouge, round end from equator to pole without touching equator
or pole.

Reverse blank, true face, mark new pole and repeat.

You now have an oval ball.  Remount after rotating 90 degrees,
checking the alignment by marking a new pole at the center (which is
the old equator) and marking a new equator which must be through the
old north and south poles.

As the lathe spins, you will see a ghost of a perfect ball.  Using a
flat tool, correct the shape by halves. To finish, start with 60 or 80
grit paper and change the ball position frequently.

Sounds like a lot of work to me.
--
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