This is one of those quick projects that ends up being very satisfying. Posting it because people seem to like these quickie-projects.
Yesterday, I opened the shade in the bedroom to let some light and heat in, and when the shade is fully open, the end of the cord lays on the floor. When it was time to close the shade, I trod upon the little plastic piece at the end of the cord, and broke it.
So this morning, I looked for a piece of round wood. I found a short length about ½ inch in diameter, and cut off a little more than a half inch. Popped it into a cup I have for the lathe, which with an open tailstock, lets me turn little balls.
A few minutes later, it was close enough to grab some sandpaper to finish it off. 60, 120, then 180 grit, followed by a coat of Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil (it wasn’t yet put away after finishing the cane I made last). A 3/32” hole through the ball, and I was done in the shop. A few minutes later, it was on the cord in the bedroom, and my sweetie told me, “nice balls!”
I will simply say nice fix to a minor problem and leave the many jokes associated with the title to the others. I will say that I am interested in your comment: Popped it into a cup I have for the lathe, às I am not familiar with such a lathe accessory, and I'll look it up to see if I can benefit from one.
Tom and Pottz, it’s just a scrap of maple with a hemispherical hole turned in the end of it. Think a jam-chuck, but for balls instead of bowls. In combination with the cupped live center that came with my Harbor Freight lathe, it’ll hold balls from about a half-inch up to 2-3 inches. If you stop and change the axis the ball is rotating on frequently, it’s not too hard to get round. And once you figure it out, there’s a lot of uses for them.
I’ve enhanced mine a bit, Tom. But got it during Covid, and HF would load it into the back of my truck at the store for me. Nobody else wanted to sell me something to keep me amused.
Enhancements are: a second banjo (using Grizzly parts) so I can put one on either side of my steady-rest when I’m using that. I already had the rests from Teknatool which come with either 5/8 or 1 inch posts, after I got tired of having to dress the HF tool rest, which is pretty soft and gets dings every time I use it. And I rebuilt the Reeves drive after one of the pulleys stopped moving due to a build-up of sawdust inside there. Nearly added a VFD at the same time, but with the Reeves Drive functioning correctly, the only thing I want is to go a little slower when starting a big unbalanced bowl blank.
Well, while we're on the topic of H F lathe, this gives me the opportunity to show off my $89 prize purchase. I've enhanced it too, with a solid wood base to keep it ridgid. Securely affixed to the 2X4 and plywood base it manages to refrain from jumping around. In all seriousness, I wasn't looking for a lathe at the time, but for $89.00 I figured I wouldn't be out much if it sucked like a shop vac, and the 40" size would be good for turning table legs. Turned out to be correct, I've made several tables for the family. Here's a few pics:
PS: I've already needed to replace the Off-On switch, and added a wooden handle on the steady rest for better torque.
First, the lathe. Near it is the small air compressor for blowing crap out of the inside of a bowl. Behind the lathe is the DC, bandsaw, and planer, all of which share the 4” DC hose. Note the two banjos on the lathe.
Next is a photo of the “cup” and a cup life-center holding a scrap which I could make round.
And finally, a face-on view of the cup, showing that it’s just a jam-chuck (made from rock maple) with a shallow depression in the end. That’s a little scorched from whatever I was working on slipping at times.
Most of “making balls” is done either with a scraper or a carbide turning tool. Fewer catches makes for a happier turner.
Start with a rod of approximately the diameter you want for the finished ball, plus a bit.
Turn a bead on the rod. You’re aiming for a sphere, so make it as wide as it is round, or maybe a bit wider. You can do this with a skew if you want, but other tools might be less scary.
Part the bead off.
Set up the cup and cup live center with the bead between them, the largest diameter facing you.
Using a scraper, turn (mostly) air until the bead becomes round, and you just start making contact all the way around.
Remount the bead with a different axis, again, trying to put the largest diameter facing you so it’s easy to turn it down to round.
Lather, rinse, repeat until you’ve got something roughly spherical.
The quicker you can stop after getting to round in step 5, the less wood you’ll lose and the easier everything will be, but if you’re not comfortable turning air, practice that first.
