Thread: Ball Turning Tool

Nice job on the ball turning tool, and welcome to the forum. With talents like that I hope you join in more now you have posted and show us some of you other projects.

Dave

Hello Mahgnia,

Nice work. Welcome to the Forum.
You've finished yours and I'm still dreaming about the thing I'm trying to make.

Bob.

Thanks Dave and Bob.
The challenge is to make something useful from old junk or scrap materials, and buy as little as possible.
I have a couple of other projects part-finished, waiting on items unexpectedly appear.
I just need to be patient.

Dreaming's over. I made the dovetailed slide. I know the gib strippers will be thinking the bastard ignored our advice, but I had started down the road of clamping with a single semi circular plate before I even cut the dovetails. It works as well as I hoped it would.

Another departure from the Bedair design will be the tool holder. It would have been pretty awkward to cut the slide's dovetails if there was a integral vertical riser. I'm thinking along the lines of a lantern toolpost incorporating a threaded outer sleeve that would (should) faciltate height adjustment. Pictured is my slotting head post to give an idea of what the thing might look like. The dovetail slide is over-length.

BT

Your vise still has the price tag attached

Nice work Bob.

Now i have to ask, all jokes aside, is the clamp on the vise holding the vice in place or just there to stop jaw lift?

Originally Posted by Ueee

Nice work Bob.

Now i have to ask, all jokes aside, is the clamp on the vise holding the vice in place or just there to stop jaw lift?

It's holding the vice in place Ew. The vice only has provision for hold down bolts at the ends.

BT

BT,
Only mad dogs and Shaublin owners were in their sheds today.
40 degrees and a tin roof is too much for us weaker young guys - I spent the last 3 hours watching the sun set and knee deep in surf at Scabs. I couldn't go deeper as Leonie had tied the floatees to my ankles.

Originally Posted by rodm

BT,
Only mad dogs and Shaublin owners were in their sheds today.
40 degrees and a tin roof is too much for us weaker young guys - I spent the last 3 hours watching the sun set and knee deep in surf at Scabs. I couldn't go deeper as Leonie had tied the floatees to my ankles.

XXXX it's been hot! That hot that none of the family have wanted to do anything. Good opportunity to ease on up the shed without feeling guilty.

The beach would have been good. Scarborough is a stretch from your place young Rod. Remember the good old days of sticking to the vinyl seats there and back. These younger blokes have grown up with velour, they wouldn't have had that joy.

More shed work tomorrow.

BT

BT
They were bench seats then so sticking to the vinyl was an advantage.
We ended up at Scarborough as it was the first vacant car park bay we could find all the way down the coast. Perth population has grown and it is all designated car parking - no more running the wheels off the edge of the road.

I have fiddled in the shed in this hot spell but sweat drips on the cast iron sends me inside to the aircon.

Hi Bob,
That looks like it will do the job, excellent workmanship as usual. The lock down area is large enough to ensure little to no movement. That cast iron looks like it machines like butter which should help you hold the tight tolerances that you were describing. When I made my ball turner I originally intended to use a carbide insert, I could not find a suitable one so opted for a HSS bit, to date I have only given it one touch up with a diamond plate as I do not use it often. One question how are you going to reference the centre of the tool base to the centre line of your lathe, I noticed that you did not scribe a mark on your base when you had it set up in the mill.
Bob

Originally Posted by krisfarm

Hi Bob,
That looks like it will do the job, excellent workmanship as usual. The lock down area is large enough to ensure little to no movement. That cast iron looks like it machines like butter which should help you hold the tight tolerances that you were describing. When I made my ball turner I originally intended to use a carbide insert, I could not find a suitable one so opted for a HSS bit, to date I have only given it one touch up with a diamond plate as I do not use it often. One question how are you going to reference the centre of the tool base to the centre line of your lathe, I noticed that you did not scribe a mark on your base when you had it set up in the mill.
Bob

Hello Bob,

39.7 in the shed. My plans for a productive day have evaporated. Getting old I guess.

I have a couple of ideas for centreline alignment. I have enough of the slide section to make a dedicated centring device. A short length, maybe 30 mm long with a vertical pointer attached which could be slid into position and aligned with a scribed mark on the main body. The pointer would then be aligned with the tailstock centre. OR, an additional hole in the main slide to accommodate a screw in pointer.

The 4E is beautiful stuff to machine albeit messy. Sadly my big Presto end mill is not as sharp as it used to be, I'll blame the 4140, and it no longer produces a silken finish but the dovetail cutter did a fine job. A rigid mill helps and the fat 13 is just that.

Bob.

Hi Bob,
The heat sure does knock you around, I have been finishing a little project of mine, mostly in the mornings when it is cooler. To get it finished over the last three days I have worked all day including a fair bit of welding in the blazing sun. The temperature has been in the 30-32 degree range but my workshop faces due west and the humidity over hear is around 80% so I feel it as well. I am not a spring chicken either 67. I will be keen to see your final design, it looks good.
Bob

It works.