Making wooden balls?
KARL HAKMILLER
JM>Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking,rec.woodworking
JM>Subject: Making wooden balls?
JM>I'm wondering if there is a relatively easy way to make wooden balls. I want
JM>at least several hundred, say 1/2", wooden balls made out of various
JM>exotics hardwoods. (This precludes me from just buying them from some
JM>mail order place.) While cost is a factor, it's not really that major of
JM>a factor. The idea of spending a thousand dollars or so is not horrific.
JM>So far the best idea I've managed to come up with is a metal lathe with
JM>a specially made cutter to cut them. Is there a special machine around to
JM>make such a creature? Or some other cute trick that hasn't crossed my mind?
JM>They need to be pretty uniform, so I don't think that any kind of tumbling
JM>trick in a container lined with sandpaper is going to do what I want.
JM>And I don't have any major problems with fabricating a machine to do what
JM>I want as long as it makes the process of making the balls quick and
JM>painless.
JM>The real size range I'm interested in making is from 4-6mm to 12-16mm. But
JM>10-12mm is an acceptable size range. Oops. I guess I should clarify.
JM>The sizes need to be uniform, and I'd like to be able to make, minimally,
JM>10mm balls and 12mm balls.
This is the full quote from FWW's Proven Shop Tips (p.102):
Making little wooden balls
Faced with having to reproduce a number of 1/2-inch diameter
wooden balls (to replace missing ornamentation on an old
fireplace), I discovered a virtually painless procedure using a
large belt sander. Build a box frame, open on the bottom, and
clamp it to the stationary part of the sander so it sits just off the
belt. For 1/2-inch diameter balls, cut 1/2-inch cubes and toss them in
the box frame. Put a cover on the box (Plexiglass is best) and turn on
the sander. The sanding belt will throw the cubes around in the frame
like dice on a game table, knocking off their corners and edges until
they are perfect spheres.
If the cubes don't tumble about but line up neatly against the far
wall of the frame, glue a wedge there. If this doesn't work, you
could vary the number of cubes, presand the corners or throw in a
few ball bearings to keep the cubes tumbling. Using this method I
produced a dozen or so perfectly shaped balls in an hour's sanding
time. Had I shaped the balls by hand it would have taken longer
and the result would have been less uniform. Perhaps laziness
really is the mother of invention. Charles Reed, Washington, D.C.
(The article also contain a sketch of this fixture)
* QMPro 1.01 ******* * There are more of them than us.
Bramel, Jim
as a lathe tool. It is cut at an angle that causes a bevel that will
cut. The id of the pipe is the same as the od of the ball. I will
try to find it and post it. Has anyone else seen this?