Thread: how to turn a wooden ball

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

Woodturners America Forums • View topic - turning a large ball

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)

One square foot of plywood one inch thick is 144 cubic inches and weighs 3 pounds. ( See: 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=is....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.