New Ball Turner

Yes, pretty much. Just did a run of the parts below. These are the parts that I built the ball turner to do. Takes about 40 minutes to run them on the manual lathe, several tool changes and setups. On the Conquest the run time is about 3 minutes, most of that time is drilling and tapping the end. Has a 5/16-18 x 1 inch deep tapped hole in the end. 304 SS, nasty stuff to work with. It is nice, put a 45 inch bar in, press go, and come back in an hour to collect the parts. And they hold +/- 0.0001 as near as I can measure.
Are you thinking about 'renting' out the ball turner now? :grin:
 
Great thread Jim! I can't believe how much that I just learned! This is now on my to do list.
Thank you.
John
 
Are you thinking about 'renting' out the ball turner now? :grin:

I would rather rent out time on the Conquest, it sits there taking up space most of the time. ;) Need a few thousand parts?
 
Not quite, I was thinking a dozen or so oddballs to dress up handles, get rid of the plastic.
Let's calculate, drill press, (3) balls, I'm guessing it would take longer to program and setup the tools than to cut the parts... :grin:
 
cant believe I've only just found this thread.
Fantastic work, thanks
 
Jim, another question, I understand using a ball at the tailstock end for doing tapers but will a ball also be needed at the headstock end?
 
Jim, another question, I understand using a ball at the tailstock end for doing tapers but will a ball also be needed at the headstock end?

That is a really good question.:encourage:

I thought about that when I built my taper turner, and I'm still not exactly sure. Since the center in the headstock is at the vertex of the triangle, the offset between the center drill hole and the center is much less than the offset at the tailstock end, I think. o_O On the other hand, the angle at both ends would be the same.

I think in a perfect world, a ball at both ends would make the most sense.
 
It is even more important to have a ball at the headstock end because the work will rock on that center when offset at the TS.
Need to keep lube on both ends.

This is a pic of the wear mark on a conventional center when cutting a very slow taper by offsetting the TS.

IMG_0405.JPG
 
Last edited:
Jim, thanks for the write up and pictures, well done!

To make my ball center for the headstock, an MT5 to MT3 adapter was placed in the spindle and an MT 3 drill chuck arbor was stuck in the adapter. A socket for the ball was cut to hold 1/2 of the ball which was then glued in. The arbor was returned to drill chuck duty without removing the ball.

IMG_0246.JPG

IMG_0248.JPG
 
Have you used the 3.773" slit saw much after this project? I was wonder how it's holding up.
 
Back
Top