Adventures in Ball Turning. Please excuse the quality, I am learning a new editor. These are just the highlights, the actual footage was over 3 hours and involved a lot of trial and error but I ended with a good result.
Mine is like that - I designed a holder and had it higher off center - My bar is 3/8" and I milled a partial flat to mount a Triangle of Carbide by screw. The slightly larger nose allows a smooth cut. The cutter is face forward and point down. It is much like a carbide insert in a tool and that tool is rotated upwards 90 degrees. The bar and the tool post holds the back pressure as it cuts. I did two different draw bars for my lathe - two designs had different threads... done 20 some odd years ago now. Usenet was my teacher. I did a 1930 model and it didn't cut like I wanted. Nice job. I think your idea of chafer on the ends of the ball blank is crackers! Thanks.
I know you like to make things lol but you can buy that shaft with the threads on it for like $15.00. Just saying. For mine I used a boring bar holder tool block with a 1 inch hole and a 3/4 bushing. 3/4 inch shaft. A thrust bearing on both ends. You can tighten the set screws on the block to get some drag on the shaft. I also made a 3/4 dia tool that takes a round carbide insert.
I am in the process of setting up one very similar to yours , I hadn't thought of a wave washer , the cutting bit is where I am not so sure of but yours seems to be on the right track . A video on it would be greatly helpful to us newbies
May I suggest that you make a drawing and calculate how much material you can hack away say at 45 degrees and then use your ball cutter. Will save you a lot of time. If you have a CAD program, the calculation will be really speedy. Happy turning brother!
Great ball turner. So far the only ball I have needed to turn was the one for the handle of the ball turner. I am sure it will come in handy some day though.
Good idea with using the boring bar tool holder! My MkII video was awful long winded, much as anything because of trying to find the right tooling and grind. I did put a slot in the other end of the boring head adjustment screw so I could tweak that more easily from right side. Looks like a great result - apart from the annoying ''stringy chips" ! The tool grind is certainly quite critical.
Great project and filming. The quality is superb and the editing is first class. Can you show setting the cutter into position in the boring bar holder on the compound rest and what your doing to make the actual cut. I get a little lost when your showing the milling machine segment and talking about the shock rod. at 15:15 your into the cutting phase after explaining to set the X-Y axis level. This is a great video and I am instructional designer.
How did you make the attachment between the boring bar holder and the boring head, what bearing is it butted against? You have any more info on how you attached the head to the tool holder, I guessing your using the tool holder. Nice idea and want to get started on mine own.👍👍👍
You mentioned lack of clearance. You also have over 45 degrees of rake because your tool is approaching at a tangent instead of right angle like a normal lathe tool.
I know its aluminum but please for the love of all things holy stop pulling the chips off with your fingers. I have seen to many people need stitches after doing that.
I'm curious to know how you sharpened the tool bit to cut in both directions with out rubbing, usually you need back-off of at least 2 degrees one side or the other.
I simply ground an angle on the round toolbit. That makes a point contact with the tangent of the workpiece. If you then move the toolbit back so it is not on top of the workpiece by a few thousandths, the radius will give the necessary clearance.
Thanks Cuppa Joe, I've been a press tool maker all my life and worked on most machines but there's always something to learn from other people like yourself. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks for the vid Joe. I would have liked to see you assemble it though. Also I'm going to look through your channel and see you've posted about it, but what in the world was that tool at 2:40 with the cable/hose coming off of it???
Yes, it was. But for filming purposes, I have nixed it. The light was good for me but bad for the camera so now it lives on the shelf above the lathe. Thanks for watching Steve.
I will try to show it more in my next video. I try to keep my video's to around 30 minutes and this one took a long time to make. It was over 3 hours of footage and 3 days of time.
I agree with you Steve just Steve. The details of making the tool are of course important, but I also would have liked to see how Joe assembled it and how he mounted it on his tool post (and I don't mean the obvious. Sometimes there are specific ways that a tool needs to be mounted and adjusted per certain applications). This is an awesome and much needed tool in any complete metal working shop, and I will certainly be making one for myself very soon. Thank you, Joe! Nice work. :-)
