how to turn a wooden ball

[hughie]

Not sure what he's going to do with it when its finished.

[Ad de Crom]

Maybe a bowling ball :D
Merry Christmas,
Ad

[_fly_]

Indianna Jones remake maybe?

[wheelinround]

Shape looks like a Bowls rather than Bowling ball

Like his ball turning rig would love to know what the machine is he's using.

Hey Hughie could that be one of the BIG things being turned down Kiewa these next few days :;

[Ross]

........put it with his other one!

[NeilS]

........put it with his other one!

.... : - )

[Paul39]

Can anyone discern what the cutting tool is? Looks like a hand circular saw held in a vise to me.

Hughie, do you have any more information other than the photo? Web site?

[texx]

looks to me like it could be an old style alloy body router

[ClintO]

They used to use giant wooden balls to clean the sewers in Paris. The balls were of a sligtly smaller diameter than the tunnel and wood cause the water to speed up as it goes past the ball, cleaning the walls

[hughie]

here you go.

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[Drillit]

Hughie,
Has to be a mothball. Therefore - as we say - a biggg moth. In passing, so to speak, Clint O might like to elaborate on what happens when the big wooden ball gets to the end of the sewer line - I have this picture of it bogling down the Seine with other like balls and heading out to sea. Cya, John M.

[D.A Hageman]

i totally agree if this guy had any idea about turning balls he would not show anyone this

[dr4g0nfly]

Can anyone discern what the cutting tool is? Looks like a hand circular saw held in a vise to me.



looks to me like it could be an old style alloy body router

I've seen Americans turn huge platters and wall plates on a very slow turning motor and do the cutting with a industrial Router, so it's my guess that Texx is right. Especially as whatever it is is mounted on a ball povit jig to ensure concentricity of the shape.<TABLE class=tborder style="BORDER-TOP- 0px" cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=6 width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR title="Post 1420818" vAlign=top><TD class=alt2 align=middle width=125></TD><TD class=alt1></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

[wheelinround]

here you go.

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Link won't work Hughie needs subscription

[hughie]

James Hume of Greenfield New Hampshire with the 5-foot diameter wooden ball he is creating.





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[Paul39]

I did a search and found a thread about the ball:

Woodturners America Forums • View topic - turning a large ball (http://www.woodturnersamerica.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=1952&p=15738)

I would sure like to see what he has as a lathe and how he mounted that much weight without a tail stock.

Quote from the thread: "
He reckoned it cost him $2000 in plywood and has yet to find or think what to do with it when finished. 84" in dia. He just liked the challenge."

I don't know where the 84 inch diameter came from, looking at the size of the ball and man, and previously cited 5 foot diameter makes more sense.

I expect one could do two halves and then glue them together. Interesting clamping problem.

I did some calculating, volume of an 60 inch sphere is 113097.3372 cubic inches, (See: CalculateMe.com - Calculate the Volume of a Sphere (http://www.calculateme.com/cVolume/VolumeOfSphere.htm))

One square foot of plywood one inch thick is 144 cubic inches and weighs 3 pounds. ( See: Weight of Plywood (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Weight_of_Plywood))

113097.3372 cubic inches divided by 144 cubic inches is 785.398175 times 3 pounds is 2356.19 pounds.

Some of you more mathematically inclined check my figures and see if you come up with the same thing.

If that is solid, I would like to see the rig and faceplate that is holding up over one
ton of plywood.

He could be cutting thin doughnuts and gluing them together to make a hollow ball. Some of the inner circles of the biggest doughnuts could be used for the smaller ones.

Some interesting plywood turnings here: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1143&bih=698&q=plywood+turnings&gbv=2&oq=plywood+turnings&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=3838l11817l0l12522l16l16l0l8l8l0l535l2265l0.1.5.1.0.1l8l0

Some years ago I tried a bowl out of an off cut of a microlam beam. My technique was not as well developed then and I had a lot of tear out. There were also a lot of voids in the laminate.