Thread: Ball Turning Tool

Originally Posted by texx

ok i cant be left out altogether , here is my effort , first real project worth speaking of on my lathe since i got it .
almost got the device finished today , just have to make the handle .but i have only minutes ago made the first knob on it and it is for said handle . there is going to be some thing of a learning curve to using it .
( crickey i need a mill now too , real bad )
anyway my ball turner works , only put about 8,000 hours into making it , and had a few design changes along the way .
the cutter is a 1/4 square hss . i bought a lathe milling attatchment and a set of mill cutters from H&F the thing is ok i suppose but only just , and 2 of the cutters had a chip in them when they arrived ( a few of them were rattling around in the plastic case in transit ) never bothered to ring h&f because i cant prove that is how they arrived and i have been using them now so i am probably stuck with them anyway .( one of the joy's of living in the bush )
johno

Looks the part Johno. Well done.

They are a lot of mucking about for a tool that probably won't receive a caning.

I bought a couple of long series largish diameter Clarkson slot drills on Ebay UK. When they arrived in Boomtown, the corners had been chipped off as a result of movement within their plastic cases during transit. Turned out the largest drill was a bit too large for my piddly mill but not too large for Ewan's Mlle. A happy ending.

Bob.

This is an ad for a radius tool I recently came across in another forum. Just one more way to skin the cat? Certainly looks easy to make your own, and easy to setup judging by the video:

serepton ltd.

forgot to say ( cant see in the pic ) it is on a tapered roller bearing inside the base for a silky smooth operation

johno

Whilst ogling 918 attachments i cam across this neat unit, apparently capable of machining balls up to 3" in dia.

img123.jpg

Cheers,
Ew

Originally Posted by RayG

So true, it's painful

Regards
Ray

I am a more than willing recipient to you relieve you of that pain....

nice work as usual

Originally Posted by Ueee

Whilst ogling 918 attachments i cam across this neat unit, apparently capable of machining balls up to 3" in dia.

img123.jpg

Cheers,
Ew

doesnt look all that hard to make.................for some of you

wonder if one could utilise a DTH in something along those design lines?

Hi Guys,

I've being playing around with making a ball turning tool for my Myford lathe for a while now. Reading through the posts in this thread have given me some ideas and shown a number of pitfalls. I too based my design very loosely on the one from Steve Bedair's web site.

I've not taken any pictures of it actually turning anything though I did make some test cuts to see if there were issues that I had to fix...
There were a couple or three !

Any way the pictures show various parts and the general construction.

BT1 and BT02a Shows most of the parts I used.
BT03a Shows the base and the bearing supporting the rotating part that carries the tool holder.
BT03b Are the clamp plates used to clamp the tool holder to the rotating part.
BT04b Is the rotating top. Its since had an additional two M6 threaded holes put in 15mm away to allow the tool holder to be put further back. This was done to
allow a larger ball to be turned. In its original condition I could only make an 8mm ball.
BT04 Is the T slot clamp for the Myford slots. I found that the caught the chuck when the tool was fitted at the edge of the cross slide. So the ends have been sawn off. They are now a pair of T nuts for use elsewhere.
BT04a I used a rubber covered roller from a scrapped laser printer fuser for the handle. I conveniently has a 6mm spindle, so I put an M6 thread on the cut end.
The other end is where it went into a sleeve bearing. When I get this tool working I will make a ball for the other end.
I turned a brass nut to fit into the bearing, drilled and threaded M8 then drilled pin holes so that it could be tightened to secure the bearing to the tool holder carrier. The bearing itself is secured into the base by a single M6 alan grub screw.

The tool bit carrier is a chunk of aluminium that I just had laying around. I used M6 grub screws to secure a 6mm square tool bit. I used a short 25mm long length of alloy underneath the tool bit with a pair of M4 grub screws so that I could set the tool hight and if needed angle it by a few degrees. I've yet to see how that works out.

Having seen some of the fine ball turning tools in this post I'm convinced that my attempt is way too complicated !

Best Regards:
BaronJ.

That's all very nice...but THIS is a ball turning tool...
From this absolutely amazing page...
William Doxford and Sons - SN Guides
Regards,
Peter

Originally Posted by lightwood

That's all very nice...but THIS is a ball turning tool...
From this absolutely amazing page...
William Doxford and Sons - SN Guides
Regards,
Peter

That is a fascinating website. Kinda puts it all in perspective. Shaper chips that could be used as paperweights. I saw the drill press I want too. I wonder if they would include the wooden steps?

Dean

Originally Posted by Oldneweng

That is a fascinating website. Kinda puts it all in perspective. Shaper chips that could be used as paperweights. I saw the drill press I want too. I wonder if they would include the wooden steps?

Dean

neat n tidy shop to boot...

I thought Keith Fenner's PlasmaCam was nifty. Imagine doing this with a hacksaw.

Flamecutting1.jpg

Dean