Wooden ball jig?

[David Warkentin]

Hi all. I have been asked to make some wooden balls a little over 2 inches in diameter. Is there someone on here that has made some kind of a jig to hold a tool to make them? Seems I have seen a wooden one somewhere. Don't really want to try to make them without one cause I am quite sure they wouldn't be perfectly round.:)

[tom martin]

I've seen a few David,
http://www.laymar-crafts.co.uk/tip48.htm looks to be fairly easy to make.
Richard Raffan shows how to make one free hand in one of his videos also. I watched and made a few. They were easy enough that I never bothered with the jig!
Tom

[David Warkentin]

Thanks Tom. I knew about this one. I was kinda looking for one made of wood. Guess I should try this one though. Just got to find that one inch square bar.

[Tim Thiebaut]

Thanks for posting that link Tom, that looks kind of interesting....

[Roger Wilson]

The Soren Berger sphere calipers help making a sphere much easier:

http://www.packardwoodworks.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=packard&Product_Code=137708&Category_Code=meas-calipers-sphere


179881

[Gary Conklin]

http://www.woodworkersinstitute.com/images/WT/articles/SphereTurningJig/DIAGRAM.jpg

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Here's another simple one to make ;-))

http://www.atbq.qc.ca/jm2/boules.htm

[Ryan Baker]

I have one I made that is pretty close in design to the one Gary posted. It's a design from of David Springett (don't know if that design was originally his or not). It saves a lot of time when making precise spheres for chinese balls.

My advise if you build one (especially from wood) is to overbuild it, and then overbuild it some more. Flexing (and therefore vibration) in the vertical arm can be problematic. The taller the arm, the more you have to brace against flexing. If you have a mini lathe, this would be a good time to choose it over a large swing lathe. Also, you don't want to have the cutter hanging out any farther than necessary, so don't build the swing arm with much extra radius. (If you want to be fancy, you could rig up an adjustable radius pivot point, but you would have to want to make a lot of spheres to be worth that.)

[David Warkentin]

Thanks guys. And Leo, for some reason I think I've seen that one before. Maybe I should search my own questions and see if I've asked this before.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

David I have posted this and other parts from Jean Michel's site, he past away a number of years ago, but the wood turners club he belonged to has kept the site available to all.
The concept of this setup comes from the way the Belgian Billiard ball turners used to turn the billiard balls in days past from Elephant ivory.

[Roger Wilson]

Here's a video link to using the Soren Berger sphere calipers:

http://www.yoyospin.com/video/

Scroll down to Turning a Perfect Sphere with Soren Berger.

Some of the techniques he uses with the calipers can be adapted to free handing and sanding a sphere. He deserves kudos for the ingenuity of it all.

[Gary Conklin]

Since this thread has resurfaced, did you ever make the jig David?

[Scott Hackler]

Darn it! Now I'm gonna have to make one of these!

[Roger Wilson]

Gary Conklin:

Here's a link to an inexpensive source for the cutting bit ($6) for the jig:

http://www.dwmontville.com/AvailableTools.htm

Scroll down to Replacement 1/4" bit. Also a 1/8" bit.

http://turnmiestr.domainhost.com/AvailablePagePhotos/ToolBitStdDimes.jpg

[Mike Ramsey]

Here's a link to 1/4" cutters, they are 2 1/2" for a 1.00, cut them in half & they are only .50 ea. I bought 4 of the 3/16" to use with my Jamieson rig for 2.90, & now have 8 cutters.
http://www.amazon.com/Square-High-Speed-Steel-Ground/dp/B0007OV5O4/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_text_b

[David Warkentin]

Still waiting on machinist friend to get some free time. Hopefully won't be too long.