Ball Turner...

[Ray C]

I had the day off (burn off vacation time) and in a fit of boredom, made this ball turner. It's almost done. Just needs a handle and a couple threaded holes to tighten the tool holder.

Pretty self explanatory... In the photos, I was checking for rough height to centerline. I'll probably finish it tomorrow and give it a test run.



Ray

 

[Old Iron]

thats a good way to make one nice job.

Paul

 

[Ray C]

Oops, I forgot to mention that the aluminum block has a 1" dia hole that you can see at the front of the base plate. It pivots at that pin which is about 1.5" long. I'll turn the face of that aluminum block down about 1/4" and put a metal disk down on it; otherwise, that butter-metal will get chewed-up in no time. The main part of the fixture is made of 4150. If I feel like getting fancy, I'll put a worm gear in there with a crank to rotate the bit holder.

I'll take better pictures tomorrow when it's done. I was in a hurry to pick-up a couple of the human pack members at the airport.

Ray

 

[itsme_Bernie]

Wow Ray!

What a fantastic idea! Love it! I look forward to seeing it "done", since I like it already!


Bernie

 

[Ray C]

I didn't think I was going to make it till tomorrow before giving this thing a test cut. Yep, as predicted, it works. Check-out the fancy temporary handle. BTW, it won't need a fancy worm gear. I took 15 thou DoC and on that 1045 and it cut like butter. That was done in about 4 passes.

I'll make a nice handle tomorrow. Uuuuh, I gotta remember to pick-up a tap on the way home. While cutting the thread for one of the "piston bolts", the one I had was making creaking noises... -You know what that means...

BTW: I made that little design up off the top of my head. It took about 3-4 hours to make with the internal dovetail taking the bulk of the time. Someone PM'd me and asked for drawings... Sorry, I don't have any but feel free to copy/modify it if you want. All the tapers are 60[SUP]o[/SUP] and if I were to do anything over, I would probably make the base about an inch longer. It was all made out of drops and don't know any of the dimensions on it really... If there's a strong enough call for it, I'll measure it and post a CAD drawing. This is perfect project for all the guys out there that just make angle plates. You can do your external tapers on that.



Ray

 

[gramps1951]

This is one of the less complicated designs I've seen. Great idea!!!

Mike from Canada

thats a good way to make one nice job.

Paul

 

[Ray C]

This should clarify things... The pivot shaft is welded to the base but is welded edge-wise so the base can sit flat on the base. The weld hasn't been cleaned-up yet or sandblasted.

Only one piston bolt for now -the tap I had was acting-up and didn't want to chance another use out of it.

One other quick note, if you make one of these, cut the dovetail on the base so you can use 1/2" long screws. I arbitrarily cut the dovetail and had to counter-sink the cap screw heads about 1/8" so they could make contact properly.

EDIT: If you make one, it's critical to weld the toolpost holder stalk so the tip of the bit will be pointing exactly through the pivot-point center-of-rotation. You'll get ovals or ellipticals (of some variety) if you don't center it properly. I made this one so it centers with 1/2 tooling with a center point and will make slight ovals if you use a 30[SUP]o[/SUP] left or right facing insert.



Ray

That is one of the smartest designs I have seen yet. I am not sure I understand how the tool holder is mounted to the base, an exploded view of the parts would be great if you have the time.

Cheers
Shawn

 

[rdhem2]

Thank you Ray C.
We should all recognize this great, simpler idea to a ball turner.
Ray once more proves he is more then just another pretty face in the crowd!

 

[Ray C]

Flattery will get you nowhere :lmao:. Huh, pretty face... Nose broken 3 times and my ears have slight signs of hematoma auris... -Teeth are all still there though...

Ray

Thank you Ray C.
We should all recognize this great, simpler idea to a ball turner.
Ray once more proves he is more then just another pretty face in the crowd!

 

[Ray C]

BTW: The dovetail was cut in the base to allow full forward positioning... If you put the bit forward of the pivot-point, it sweeps an arc that will make a "reverse circle". This would be useful for making a finger-grooves on a handle for example or putting a ball-cup on the end of a shaft -which would be useful as a single-point thrust bearing if you put a ball bearing in the cavity.


Ray