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turning a perfect sphere.

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Eric Harvey:
I was given a tip at my woodturning club the other month,they said if you use a cone drive and a cone on the revolving tailstock with a bright light to see the shadows when its revolving,then turn a section,move it around  then return it and so on untill you have a perfect sphere,going by some of the balls turned ,it certainly works,no doubt with practice and patientsanyone could get the same results,regards,

Eric.

Bryan Milham:
Poking around I came across these instructions for making your own ball turning jig,

http://www.bobchapman.co.uk/_6__ball_jig.pdf

vyvsdad:
Thanks for all of the tips guys.
I've not yet tried layout as I'm away from my lathe and am just planning some projects.
For the smaller 50mm balls, as I'll need quite a few, I think I'll just buy them, but when I come to do the croquet balls I think a home made ball turning jig is going to be the order of the day.
I'll keep you all posted.

Thanks to all,

Dan

Haggy:
Dan, an easy quick method to turn a sphere is to cast a shadow onto your lathe bed with a lamp (see pic).
If you have a circle drawn on a piece of flat material that rests on your bed you can shadow turn.
You can focus the shadow by moving the lamp back and forth on the work piece -this is a quick, simple way to get good results.  The kids I teach love this,  is easy to set up and change the OD of the sphere.
Worth a try!
   Haggy

Haggy:
Sorry, meant you to see this pic- if I have not made things clear please get back.

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