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I was asked by a friend to glue up and make 30+ wooden balls from Bocote, Black Palm, Honduras Rosewood, Bloodwood, Sycamore, Mahogany, and Oak. These will be used for an art piece. They range in size from 3"(the Oak) to 9"(Sycamore). He bought the Oak ones online and I just sanded & finished those. The rest had to be milled & glued up from rough stock into suitable-sized blanks and turned.

I'll blog more about them later but I wanted to give you a sample of a late-comer that I just finished. It is a 7.5" Bocote, glued up from 2×2 rough stock. As you might surmise, there is a bolt in the blank for fitting to the lathe in the Jacobs chuck.

They were all roughed out by hand to within 1/8" or so of final size. I then mounted my homemade ball-turner on the mini lathe and turned them down to final size. Due to the weight of these, I had to keep the tailstock in place, thus requiring the ends to be finished off by hand. The left end only left 3/4" or so, but the other end left about 3.5". They were sanded to 400 and finished with a wipe-on Poly.

Gallery

Comments

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It's amazing job. Can not believe my eyes they were not made out of mica or acrylic.
 

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Hi Rance;

Great job on that.

Lee
 

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Wow. Nice job.
I can not imagine making those.

Steve
 

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Beautiful job.
Speaking of balls, at out last guild meeting we had a presentation by the creator of a 72" diameter ball that became a globe for Art Prize 2010. It was amazing to see the fixture he made to slide a router on all around this huge ball to cut it round.
I see yours and I am amazed at the accuracey at which you turned it on the lathe

It loosks perfect. did you use a radius gage?
Great project!!!
............Jim
 

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That's a beauty. The wood grain, color, and finish are all top notch. I'd like to see that art piece when it's completed. It's sure to be something unique.
 

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I was almost afraid to open this one…lol But, glad I did. Very kool. It takes a lot to make a ball. How bout a closer look at that jig for making the ball?
 

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I also hesitated to open this…

I love how the grain changes around the curves on some of the larger pieces, nice job.
 

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Rance, Very NICE… COOL stuff!

How many Balls do you have?

Do you have a template that you use on the lathe to get that perfect circle?
 

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I would like to see the set up you used on the lathe. Possible to show the whole jig? Do you use a router on the circle jig? Very cool set up, I like it!
 

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Outstanding title. I'm still confused how you accomplished this feat. You lathe guys blow me away.
 

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Rance, that's amazing. You need to do a blog on this ball turner of yours.
 

· In Loving Memory (Eddie)
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i wanted complement your balls but kept putting it in a way that could be taken the wrong way it a amazing feat to do a build like that ,those are beautiful balls
 

· In Loving Memory
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Nice title, Rance! But this turning is spectacular. What happens to the area where the bolt is in the finished product?
 

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Thats a bit of a achievement you have there Rance, very well done, the joints look fantastic, you'll be winding up our Aussie mate Sam with this baby.
(bet your pleased you only have "one" being this size) lol ;; ))))
Pete
 

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I love it! You could make your own Bocce Ball game. I like the looks of these better than a solid piece of wood. Amazing work and very difficult to do.
 

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Has anyone seen the balls used in the Paris sewer system?

These are large, hollow, and NOT nearly as beautiful!

sewer balls
 
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