# And yet another ball turner



## iron man (Oct 19, 2014)

I got tired of not having a ball turner so I made one out of steel this weekend for my Atlas Lathe. It is a simple design and works good.


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## iron man (Oct 19, 2014)

Since the Atlas has a v type post for the compound I thought I would take advantage of it.


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## iron man (Oct 19, 2014)

I indexed three holes and installed ball bearings with a setscrew adjustment behind it they roll around the post very nice.


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## iron man (Oct 19, 2014)

And of course the first ball you turn is the one for the handle.. Ray


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## righto88 (Oct 19, 2014)

Very nice work! It sure turned a nice ball!


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## dave2176 (Oct 19, 2014)

I gotta make one of these. They are so cool.
Dave


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## Kroll (Oct 26, 2014)

Nice job Ironman,looks like a very nice project.I am in need of a ball turner as well,nothing fancy just need it to work.I'm a beginner and would like to know alittle more details.Being a beginner I do not know what the cutting tool is called or anything bout it,could you explain alittle bout it?Did you make the part that the insert is mounted on and did you weld it to the part that slides for adjusting the size of the ball?Is your material just mild steel or something special?I really like the ball bearings,did you use just a setscrew to push the bearing into place?Guess its a 3/8 ball bearing, I also have a 12" Sears/Atlas lathe which I really just started using it and want to add your ball turner.I have some knobs to make from maybe 5/8 dia on up to maybe 2-3" dia.Thanks for posting your project,it has fired me up to get busy----kroll


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## iron man (Oct 27, 2014)

Kroll said:


> Nice job Ironman,looks like a very nice project.I am in need of a ball turner as well,nothing fancy just need it to work.I'm a beginner and would like to know alittle more details.Being a beginner I do not know what the cutting tool is called or anything bout it,could you explain alittle bout it?Did you make the part that the insert is mounted on and did you weld it to the part that slides for adjusting the size of the ball?Is your material just mild steel or something special?I really like the ball bearings,did you use just a setscrew to push the bearing into place?Guess its a 3/8 ball bearing, I also have a 12" Sears/Atlas lathe which I really just started using it and want to add your ball turner.I have some knobs to make from maybe 5/8 dia on up to maybe 2-3" dia.Thanks for posting your project,it has fired me up to get busy----kroll



# Thanks it is fairly simple project all material is cold rolled. The part that holdes the carbide insert is a piece of cold roll cut into a L shape and then milled and shaped to the configuration that you see I used a carbide insert I had laying around simply because it had a hole in it and it is very simple to secure and change out. The ball bearings are 5/16 the setcrews that apply the adjustment are 3/8. Ray


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## Kroll (Nov 16, 2014)

One more question ironman,what size inserts are you using.I don't know anything about inserts sizes,or shapes so I don't really know how to select a insert---kroll


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## Pmedic828 (Nov 16, 2014)

Hi. I am in the process of making a ball turner - i just managed to turn a square piece of 1-1/4 X 4 X 4 into the "body".  What size is the circular portion of the turner = mine will be about 3.750 when I am done and will post pics.  I will attempt to hold the "body" to a piece of 1/2 inch plate with 4 holes mounted to the saddle using a 3/8 X 1 inch FH cap screw - I also will attempt to mount a bearing so it can turn.  Thanks for the info.


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## Torbo (Nov 17, 2014)

This is interesting, but I don't really understand how it works? Can you tell more about the use of the tool?


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## iron man (Nov 17, 2014)

It is mostly for any inside or outside curve you want to make this one pivots on the center of the carriage you simple pivot it back and forth feeding it in and you get a perfect or radius just depends on your imagination. Ray


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## Torbo (Nov 17, 2014)

Thanks!


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## NEL957 (Mar 14, 2016)

You did a very nice job on your ball turner. I made one like it many years ago, Steve Bedair was the one I go it from. I do not like the distance the ball has to be away from the chuck or collet. I am in the process of making a different design and I think it will work out better.
Again nice work.


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