Bowling Ball Thimbles...

[Ed Davidson]

Some of you may remember the new bowling ball turning material that Pens of Color came out with about a year ago. I was always in a bit of a quandary over these 1" x 8" blanks...too big for pens and too small for bottle stoppers. Finally came up with a good use for this stuff…perfect size for thimbles:

[Jeremiah Jordan]

Very nice looking Ed. I have never turned bowling ball blanks before, how do they turn?

Jeremiah

[Ed Davidson]

It turns real nice, no catching, long strings.

[Jim Ketron]

Nice Job! They look great!

[Jerry Clark]

Great Idea Ted, They look great!:)

[John Hart]

Pretty cool Ed. That's a nice "little" niche you've found there.:) Are you developing any interest in buyers?

[Blake McCully]

Ed, Great looking thimbles. I've been considering purchasing some of those bowling ball blanks. I have a customer in NC who wants some gentlemen's pens made from acrylic and that's the only place I've seen that have blanks large enough. Eight inches long, that would be enough to make the gent's pen and a detachable key chain or two. Maybe even a contrasting color and a segmented letter opener.

I've turned a lot of acrylic and I assume (of course you know what that means) that these are acrylic, or at least acrylic-like, correct?

[Ed Davidson]

Blake,

These bowling ball blanks turn a lot differently than acrylic...the material is much easier to turn but harder to get the scratches out. Here's a link to POC's website where the blanks are sold: http://pocwoodworking.com/catalog/default.php/cPath/28_49

And this link will take you to a tutorial on finishing them: http://pocwoodworking.com/bb.htm

[Keith Burns]

You sure have better eyes than I do and a lot smaller tools ! They look great ! I just can't imagine turning stuff that small.


"I'm tired of being arm candy for my wife"

[Blake McCully]

Ed,
Thanks for the links. Apparently they are not acrylic. I usually sand my acrylics to 400 dry, the wet MM to 12,000. Have you tried wet MM with the bowling ball blanks? I think I'll order the variety pack and give it a try. I have a Beall system and I'll try that. I have had some success with sanding acrylics to 400 then using the Beall. It removes all the fine sanding scratches, but it doesn't put a real high gloss like I get with the wet MM.

I'll give these a shot and let everyone know what I do and how it comes out.

By the way, Ed. Do you use a collet chuck on your thinbles?

[Lee DeRaud]

Ok, I'll bite: why are they called "bowling ball blanks"? Reason I ask, I've done bowling a lot longer than I've done woodworking, and for the life of me I have no idea what these are.

[Dan Lanicek]

I'd be interested in learning how you turned the thimbles. What are the dimensions of a thimble? Did you drill the hole with a special bit or hollow it out? How did you reverse it and turn the top?

[Ed Davidson]

These thimbles measure about 1” tall and ¾” in diameter at the base. The tools I’m using for these plastic thimbles are the Craft Supplies special tapered drill bit for the hollow out (very precise hole), a ½” round nose scraper and 1” skew. Here's a link for the CS cutter: http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/cgi-bin/shopper?preadd=action&key=392-1200

The holding process I’ve been using is to either chuck up a 1.5” long x 1” wide round blank in a 4-jaw self-centering scroll chuck or CA the blank to a waist block that’s attached to a face-plate using double sided tape. Once the blank is secured, turn/finish the inside completely and outside as much as possible. Then part it off, reverse chuck using a wooden jam chuck, and finish the outside.

A few years ago, several people experimented with the idea of cutting up old bowling balls on a band saw and using the small pieces of plastic salvaged from the outer ring of these balls for making pens...it was a pretty dangerous cut. Anyway, Sheila, over at Pens of Color, came up with a manufacturer who would cast these big pen blanks made from the same materials as the outer skin of bowling balls…ta da!

My process for finishing this material is wet sand from 220 to 600 grit, then robustly polish using one of the commercial liquid scratch removers, followed by a robust Beall buff…works for me.