Ball/radius Turning Attachment Help

boostin53

boostin53

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Hey y'all it's been a long time since I posted. Haven't been involved with anything to do with machining much recently due to life getting in the way.

Well the time has come from me to get my feet back in the water. I'm wanting to build a ball/radius attachment for my Grizzly G4003G lathe. My problem is fining a simple way to make one that doesn't require a lathe. I have done some research and most of the ones I looked at seemed to need a mill at one point.

I do not have a mill and have no access to one at the moment. Does anybody have any ideas for me to make a simple one? I'm thinking something like the one in this ebay picture I attached. Any better suggestions?Screenshot_20161021-094931.png
 
Use the compound if the lathe has one that rotates. Build a flat plate that bolts into the compound t-slot then build tool holders that bolt to this plate, this may all be done with a drill press and lathe, position tool point about the center of rotation using the carriage and cross slide then adjust the compound to diameter and turn away.

The only drawback is the size of the compound may interfere with the chuck, keep this in mind

compound.jpg
 
I can use both of those ideas to make something better than what I originally thought. Why is it that sometimes the simplest of ideas are looked over? Then when somebody else shows/tells you about it, I think to myself, " Geez that was easy!" I have a habit of over thinking sometimes.
 
boostin53 said:
I can use both of those ideas to make something better than what I originally thought. Why is it that sometimes the simplest of ideas are looked over? Then when somebody else shows/tells you about it, I think to myself, " Geez that was easy!" I have a habit of over thinking sometimes.
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I have the same issues with over thinking things. I made a ball turner using a tool holder block and a Criterion boring head. This method cuts up and over the top of the piece being turned. It works very well and is adjustable for radius size using the boring head slide itself. The cutting tool is a 3/8" boring bar ground to cut on its end face.
 
kd4gij said:
Toolmaker has the right Idea. And the cheap imports will work fine. If you have a QCTP A boring bar holder will work.

View attachment 138147
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I like your idea of using a boring bar holder for the QCTP.
On my version I have incorporated adjustable stops for both ends of rotation. I did this because I had a small production run of double ball handles so I needed the repeat-ability.

Dick
 
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