turning your balls...

[seventhdevil]

curious to know if any one has made or bought a ball turning jig and what they think of them?
what sizes can be turned on them?


i made my own as i thought any i could find on the market were either unsuitable for my lathe or too feeble in their construction. they were often too pricey as well.

[Les Symonds]

Two members of our club in Mid Wales, Kym and Pwl, regularly turn excellent balls using a technique that Pwl has set up using a light over the lathe and a shadow cast onto the workpiece by a circular former....they have excellent results.
This link takes you to the club's website gallery, and to the section displaying a large ball out of laminated cherry...just scroll through to it.
http://www.midwaleswoodturners.com/other-turnings-and-carvings.html
If you want to know more about the technique, contact them at this email address....secretary@midwaleswoodturners.com
Les

[seventhdevil]

can't see a link les?


here is a video of my device

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L8gVf9UjV4

[Graham]

All things considered, I think I would prefer not to.

[Les Symonds]

can't see a link les?

....sorry, I must have missed it out....have added it now

[seventhdevil]

nice looking job, what size is that? looks 6-7"

[Les Symonds]

nice looking job, what size is that? looks 6-7"

...about 5", if  remember correctly.

[seventhdevil]

these are 4 1/2" made from makore.

[Graham]

Balls to go with your skittles Seventh ?

[Eric Harvey]

its ok for those of us that have welders to make metal ones,but wooden ones are often strong enough for those that don`t

[seventhdevil]

i don't have a welder eric but i do have a mate in london who is and engineer so i did the design and we used scraps out of his recycle bin to make it.

yes graham they are for a customer who rents out alleys for weddings and parties and a while ago i supplied him with beech but i've none left but know where i can get 5" makore so used that instead.

[Les Symonds]

Steve....I've been studying your video. Once you've got your sphere down to the diameter that you want, do you continue to use the jig to clean off the mounting stubs, or do you just mount the sphere between two jam-chucks and just clean those off by eye?
Les

[seventhdevil]

for my mind that's just too much faff putting it in other chuck to remove the nubs.

i pull the cutter back 1/8" sand the whole thing, then clean up the ends to 1/8" and cut off with my dagger knife which is very sharp.

so it's by eye...

 

[Bryan Milham]

so it's by eye...
 

Near enough for Skittles

[woodndesign]

these are 4 1/2" made from makore.

Where we played .. these were the size for Lady Balls' .. then the diamond would normally be smaller too .. else they go through ..  ..

Man size now .. at times needed two hands and should you every get a round one ..  .. at best it was throwing eggs ..  ..  Composite Balls mind you.

Beaten up old set of pins would blow over .. never bl@@dy roll either ..