Wood Balls, Mallet & Overlapping Circles - #1 The Start

After making the Frank Lloyd Style light and the Dining/Game Table projects I decided I did not want to do another major project just now.  I also wanted to do things that I had not done before and were maybe a little different.  It has been awhile since I had done something on the lathe so I went that direction.  Well mostly, anyway.  There are three different projects I have planned that I will be working on and depending on how they go maybe a fourth.

To start, about 30 years ago I had tried to turn a wood ball for my then young son to play with.  The result was not a nice true sphere but something that looked more like a very deformed egg.  Although the results were not what I had imagined I thought that he would like to play with it anyway.  What I quickly learned was that it is not a good idea to give a 2-year-old a 3” solid oak “ball” to play with inside the house as it quickly became a flying projectile.  Fast forward 30+ years where my skills and knowledge on the lathe had improved so I decided to give it another try.

In getting started the first thing I needed to do is to glue up some blanks for the balls and for a couple of jigs that I will need to make.  Here are the blanks glued and clamped together and no I do not think I used too many clamps. 😊The blank for two of the test balls is on the left.  The two pieces on the right are for the jigs.

Once the glue cured I could mark circles on the jig blanks then rough cut them roundish on the bandsaw.  The cut does not have to be precise as its just to make the turning to a true round piece easier.  It’s a lot easier to not have to turn away the corners.

Here on the left are the two blanks for the balls.  On the right are the rough-cut blanks for the jigs.  Don’t worry about the big chunk out of the far right blank as it will be turned away as I make the jig.

Next, I marked the center of the ball blanks using my center-finder then punched a small dimple at the lines intersection

With the center marked I set the drive center in the dimple and gave it a good whack with my old mallet.  The “X” on the blank in the lower left is a reference mark.  I have a similar mark on the drive center.  This allows me to take the piece off the lathe the put it back on in exactly the same place.

Here the block blank is set in the lathe ready to go.  I will rough it out using the roughing gouge shown. 

When I turn the lathe on the area sticking out beyond what will be a smooth cylinder is semi-transparent.  If you look at the left end you can see what looks solid is the size of the smooth cylinder I will end up with.  Everything outside of that line has to be removed.

Here about half of the excess has been removed and the semi-transparent area is much smaller.

When you get close the spinning blank looks solid.  At this point all I needed to do was trim up the left side as it is a little larger than the rest of the cylinder. 

Stopping the lathe confirms I have a nice true cylinder to work with.  At this point I took the blank off the lathe turned the other one down to the same size and set both of them aside to work on the jigs.

This is a cross section of the jig I am going to make.  Both of them are identical so they are interchangeable however, for maximum consistency I will probably not switch them around.  One gets attached to the live center mounted in the tail stock and one gets clamped in the scroll chuck mounted on the headstock.

There are a number of steps in making the jig and they need to be done in a specific order so here goes.  First the rough turned blank is butted up against the scroll chuck on the head stock (left side) then the point of the live center mounted in the tail stock (right side) is set in the dimple done earlier.  The live center is then cranked down to apply pressure and hold the blank tight to the scroll chuck.  I can now start the lathe and turn the blank round.  With that done a notch is cut on the tail stock end as shown.  This provides a place for the chuck to grab in the next step.

The blank is flipped end for end and using the notch cut above it is securely mounted in the in the scroll chuck.

A 5/8” drill is mounted in a Jacob’s chuck set in the tail stock is used to drill a 1¾” deep hole in the jig.  Once I have blown out the wood chips from the hole I use a ¾” x 10 tap to cut threads in it.  That configuration matches the threading on the live center that goes in the tail stock.  This allows the jig to be screwed onto the live center.  Don’t worry if things don’t quite make sense just yet, they will.

Next, a shallow recess is cut in the jig using a Fostner bit.  This style of bit gives me a nice flat bottom in the recess.  The recess provides a reference surface in the jig that butts up to a matching shoulder on the live center.

The last step on this end of the jig is to cut another notch so the piece can be flipped end for end again and securely mounted in the chuck.

With jig in its production location I add numbers to it that match the jaw numbers on the chuck.  This will allow me to take it off the lathe the put it back on in exactly the same place.  I can now turn the jig to its final cone shape and add the curved recess on the end.  This recess will be what holds the ball to be in place when I do the final turning. 

All I have to do now it duplicate the process to make another one.  Here both are done and installed on the lathe.

Next Up – Turning & Finishing the Balls