Ball turning

Third way is to ask someone with a CNC lathe to do it for you Bob

I could, but I do this because I take pleasure from the making, so two objectives here, to learn the best way of turning balls and then to turn one. If I just needed a 3/4 brass ball, I'd probably weaken and buy one. This one needs to have an included chamber to hold some cylinder oil.

In article , Steve writes

Steve,

If you just have the one to do, and are short of the readies to buy a ball turning attachment, you can do it by co-ordinate turning. Provided your gibs are well adjusted, you use fine increments, and you remember to turn the screws consistently to avoid backlash, the results are quite good, just requiring a touch up with a fine file.

An Excel spreadsheet can readily be constructed to give you the coordinates.

David

Years ago we used to drill and ream a hole, the ball diameter required, in a piece of guage plate, cut it in half across the diameter, then use that to plunge in carefully Bob

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required, in a

That's the way the Professor suggested to make the ball handles for the Quorn T&C grinder.

AWEM

The down side of the form tool is that If you get a mark on the cutting edge, all the balls will have the mark faithfully reproduced. Can always clean them up though and it's a lot quicker than some of the alternatives.

I mounted a boring head on a Myford dividing head. used with a "push" tool it works quite well once you've got it centered. Long term solution will be a Hardinge pattern one to clamp on the bed.

Mark Rand RTFM

Thanks David, did it this way in the end. I used a clock gauge for the traverse and the micrometer dial on the cross-slide. The excel data was created for absolute readings on so "73" meant 73 on the dial and 2.3 meant

2.3 on the clock. This meant even with 40 cuts the work was pretty quick. A fine file and emery brought the piece to a nice finish (not to mention Brasso!)

Steve

In article , Steve writes

Good result! And, BTW, thanks for coming back and telling us - it's always good to get to hear the results.

David