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I got the design for this tool from Steve Bedair's web site. His ball turning tool was a much simpler design than others I had seen.For the ML7 lathe the centre height was much lower than Steve's, so some components had to be shortened as appropriate. Here are some images of the final item. Visit Steve web site for more pictures, dimensions and building instructions. |
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Tool on the LM7 lathe |
Tool Detail |
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The tool was built from scrap material. 1/2" aluminium plate for the base, an off-cut of cast iron for the rotating part and a piece of bright mild steel for the tool holder. I found that a small amount of grease between the rotating surfaces made the tool much nicer to use. A locating edge was added to the design as shown above to aid the location of the attachment onto the cross-slide. |
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This was a 20mm brass ball handle made with the tool. The tool worked really nicely but careful use was required to make a sphere rather than an elliptically profiled shape (which is what I got first time). |
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Exact diameters were difficult to obtain but with a little practice decent results were possible and exact sizes are not important with most handles. |
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The ball turning tool was used to form part of a handle for a fire poker, which was being made as a present. The poker handle was formed from a piece of 1" diameter brass rod; because of the clearance required by the ball cutting tool to create a sphere the ball was made separately and pinned and brazed onto the end of the handle. |
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The tool was also used to make a ball handle for the saddle lock on the ML7.For details on making ball handles go here. |
