Have a Ball....

[Kevin Lucas]

No pics but I tried to do a drawing of the holder. It's crude but may give the right idea.ball jig.jpg

You get a section of pipe the size you want the ball to fit or turn the ball to fit it? One end cap you leave the lip on the back so you can use the chuck jaws and the front one you cut it off or turn it off so the front cap has a hole even with the top. The bonus with using the caps is that there are already round holes that the ball will set against. When the ball is put in and the front cap tightened its nice and secure. A good idea may be padding in the back. The front cap with the hole even with the top allows a little of the ball to stick out so you can tell the curve of the form. I see it as sort of a mini donut chuck and pvc comes in all kinds of sizes. It will probably work great for other things besides spheres. Hope I explained it ok )

[Steve Drummond]

Here is one of my early efforts on the path to making Chinese balls. It is huon pine with the twelve primary points pierced. Dodecahedrons - 12 sided geometric shapes are also interesting and a logical development from a sphere.CB_level1_huon pine.jpg

[Nate Davey]

David, try this link, the tutorial tab has a YouTube link.
http://www.lindsaylathetools.com/sphere/ or
http://woodturninglearn.net/articles/bocceball.htm

[David DeCristoforo]

Thanx for the links, Nate and S.D and K.L for the pics. I'm suddenly realizing that this is one of those "more ways to skin a cat" things.... more than I will probably ever know. I'm looking forward to trying out some of these ideas...