Ball Turner Without A Ball Turner

[benmychree]

I had to make a bearing cap once that had the outer race built into it. I used the same approach. It worked great. I used an indicator on my tracer part.

Your approach with the indicator can also be used on shapers and planers as well, we used to make templates of a hard fiber board and use them on the shop's 6ft X6ft x 16ft Planer and plane things like large radii on press forming dies, and the tops of rocker bearings for the new San Mateo bridge; they had a concave radius perhaps 4" deep over a width of about 6 feet; these were about 6 ft square section and perhaps 12 ft long; as the tool fed across, one simply zeroed the dial indicator riding on the template at each feed interval.

 

[racardon]

Very cool. Now, I just have to remember it next time I need it.