Ball in a cage

[sjm]

Here's my first attempt at carving a ball in a cage.
The timber is cypress pine, 100x100. The ball is 70mm diameter.

steve

[ozwinner]

But how do you get it out??


Al :D

[Ben from Vic.]

Thats great Steve.

Nice one. ;)

[ptc]

UNREAL !
not allowed to give you a brownie
sorry,you deserve one for work like that
ptc

[multinut]

Nice work Steve
i think i will have to give one of these a go
did it take you long to carve
and what tools did you use

cheers
multinut
:cool:

[sjm]

Nice work Steve
i think i will have to give one of these a go
did it take you long to carve
and what tools did you use

cheers
multinut
:cool:

Less than a day of actual carving (approx 7 hours), but about a week of planning, drawing and thinking! I modelled it using a CAD program, so there was no guess work or thinking required when carving. It was just a matter of making careful measurments and following the drawing.

I started by drilling a series of holes on each side using a drill press to create the top and bottom gaps. I then cleaned these up with a straight chisel and a gouge for the corners (photo 1). Then I used a paper template from my model to draw the shape of the ball and rounded off the corners with a straight chisel (photo 2).

More shaping and slicing with a straight chisel to get the sphere shape almost complete, then checked with a cardboard template (I don't own calipers :) ) for roundness. Do this before removing the ball from the edges (photo 3).

Once I was happy with the shape, I used a sharp hobby knife to slice the ball away from the edges - there was literally only a few strings of grain holding it in place at each corner. Computer modelling works!

Then I used some wedges to hold the ball still whilst I sanded it smooth. I also sanded the internal corners to help the ball slide around.

I finished off the top with a chamfer bit in the router, and the outside edges with a round-over bit (photo 4). Then a light oil to bring out the color (photo 5).

steve

[Kris.Parker1]

Very nice, well done.

Cheers

Kris