Ball Turner

[rohamm]

I, too, wondered why all the fuss about making a ball turner and tried the approach mentioned above of making a simple insert holder that mounted in place of the tool post to take advantage of the compound's ability to rotate.

It didn't work out well. The compound on my rockwell 11x37 doesn't rotate freely enough even though the surfaces look like they should. Since it doesn't have to, I imagine the mfr. spent no time trying to make it do so.

Then I looked at one of the Lautard books to see what ideas he might have and hit paydirt. His method is to calculate the coordinates of a selection of points on the circumference of the desired circle and sculpt it with a cutoff blade. His conclusion was 'why would anybody want to spend a week making a ball-turning attachment'.

It was pretty easy to write a computer program to calculate and print the coordinates so then I just hung them over the lathe, stuck a magnetic dial indicator to the ways and turned the dial while moving the carriage. worked slick, and better yet, when I decided I'd like to make segments of ellipses instead of just circles it was straightforward to change the program to do so.

Marv Klotz has a program that does circles plus IIRC a curve-fitting one.

I've since fitted a chinese digital scale to the lathe which eases the process further.

someone handy w/Excel could do the same thing, but my experience w/printing spreadsheets has been pretty discouraging.

 

[nightowl499]

make one its a good project , mine is a version of the one on steve bedairs 9x20 page it works great have made aluminum and stainless steel balls if you make one your need for it grows..

 

[chuckorlando]

I have rounded two ends on a handle using the compound and cross slide at the same time. It's do able but it's a real pain. If you want to turn multiple round things, i would make or buy a ball turner. It is very hard to treat your hands and dials like stepper motors and be consistent. It would be even more time to figure out all the points and use needed to really use your hand as a stepper. Least I would think. Just depends where you put your value

 

[zmotorsports]

make one its a good project , mine is a version of the one on steve bedairs 9x20 page it works great have made aluminum and stainless steel balls if you make one your need for it grows..

Digging the knob.

I think I am going to follow Steve Bedair's design as well when I get my new lathe. It looks like a nice, solid design.

Mike.

 

[TOOLMASTER]

I wouldn't buy one unless you have thousands of balls to turn. Then I would buy something of better quality. Just loosen your compound and use it for the pivot point and make an offset toolholder, then just slide the tool in or out to adjust sizes, swiveling the compound by hand.

That's what i have always done.

 

[kevin]

There is a lot of online info on making ball turning tools; look here for a collection of links: https://sites.google.com/site/lagadoacademy/useful-links#lathetools

 

[Pcdoctor]

I bought one of those Repton RT1 ball turner, and so far I have had a lot of pleasure with it.
As I only have a Sieg C1 Micro Lathe, it's a very big tool, for such a small lathe, and in the first way i didn't fit at all.
Then the owner of the http://www.serepton.co.uk/ site made a smaller tool holder. It helped so the tool now could work in the center, but the bolt down under the tool, still hit the bed way, so I cut down the bolt size to 3mm, until it was free of the bed.
Then it could work.
I work in aluminum, brass and bronc, and in those metals it works perfect.
I haven't tried to turn a ball yet, as I have been busy making cigarette off units (so far 25 to 4$ each). All the curves on that one in the picture are turned with Repton RT1. (Finish polish still missing)
I can turn those curves by hand, but it will take way more time.



Pcdoctor

 

[markknx]

I too built a Bedair spin off. Very quick easy build ,and ridged. I made it with opposite facing inserts to give me more concaved optionsalso. I use it alot, cutting SS, mild steel, AL, and of coures Brass balls.

make one its a good project , mine is a version of the one on steve bedairs 9x20 page it works great have made aluminum and stainless steel balls if you make one your need for it grows..

 

[Jimsehr]

Jim Sehr's super simple ball turner.

I made a super simple ball turner out of a washer turning off a bolt with just a 1/4 inch
piece of hss that I just ground the end flat. The cutting edge has to be on machine centerline . I used a 3/8 dia shcs bolt about 3 inch long for a handle to spin it with.
I made it so the inside edge of cutting tool was .500 from center of washer and that gives
me a 1 inch radius. The tool will turn the ball but it will not face the end of part
because there is no clearance on tool. I have made lots of 1 inch balls with it but for each size ball you have to make a new swing point. I have also made other ball turners where you can adjust to ball size but this one is super fast to make.
jimsehr

 

[squowse]

Hi forgive me for my ignorance. I am amazed that the cutting tool is so simple as a hss rod. Does it not need a cutting edge and what material were you cutting?
I want to cut a 10mm radius concave groove. Do you think your device could do that?
Thanks
Roger