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Ball turning attachment for Myford lathes

zetec7

Aluminum
Joined
Apr 10, 2010
Location
Victoria BC, Canada
I was wondering if anyone here has looked at trying one of these - RDGTOOLS BALL TURNING ATTACHMENT FOR MYFORD LATHE - eBay (item 350279380901 end time Jul-13-10 02:08:52 PDT)

I would prefer to make one myself, but I don't have a milling attachment, or access to a mill, so this is not likely to be possible for me. These ones look interesting. I emailed them and asked if anyone had tried one on a SB machine (mine's a 9C), and they replied "These are designed for a 3 1/2'' centre height lathe but have been used on many different lathes, normally you would make a packing piece?".

The price seems right, and the Youtube videos on their website look like it would work well...if it could be reasonably easily adapted to a SB...

Any thoughts?
 
Bearing in mind that I've not used or seen used these tools and that crafty engineering along with attention to detail can outflank many conceptual problems some points to ponder are:-

1) In principle a spacer is easy enough to make but there is very little thickness tolerance as there doesn't appear to be any tool height adjustment. These horizontal swing ball tuners need to be exactly on centre height to produce a true ball. Small errors make a visible difference to the shape, the MK1 eyeball is very sensitive to that sort of thing, and larger errors tend to mess up the finish.

2) You need to check on insert type and availability. Frankly this doesn't look like a good application for a conventional insert for speed, depth and angle of cut reasons. You need a sharp tool of the right tip shape to get a good surface finish on the ball direct off the tool. Only polishing should be needed. Denny Turks favourite super sharp positive rake inserts sound like the right thing here. If you are going to resort to files and emery for final finishing you might as well save your money, set up a parting tool and use Guy Lautards tables.

3) There doesn't appear to be any controlled adjustment for ball radius. No great problem for handles but if it needs to fit something there could be a deal of trial and error involved. Possibly a screw can be retrofitted in.

Bottom line is that you can expect the tool will work fine within its limitations with regards to surface finish and exact ball size but you may have to work a bit harder than you'd hoped to get it set up just so. Ball turners tend to be pernickety beasts.

Were I to make up a ball turner with minimum facilities I'd go for the vertically swinging type based on an inexpensive boring head fitted to a parallel shaft running in a block bolted to the top slide. Looks a little cumbersome on a 9" lathe but the boring head gives a nice screw controlled size adjustment and you can bore the bearing block in situ so you know the axis of rotation is on centre height.

Clive
 
An 'over the top' ball turner is inexpensive and simple to make. Works pretty
well, too.

pw_handle_fix_8.jpg


pw_handle_fix_9.jpg


Results:

pw_handle_fix_11.jpg
 
Years ago I made a ball turner that was a yoke type and to big for the job. :angry:

Then I made a simple over the top type as noted by Jim in a previous post. It is the one that I use 90% of the time. The yoke type is now setup for concave turning. :) I had written up this for the Quorn group and added the diagrams to at the back of the paper. It can be downloaded at:

http://www.metalwebnews.com/howto/turning-tool/spherical_turning_tool.pdf

You _really_ don't need plans to make one, but the "stops" that I made have actually come in handy while turning the ball. Otherwise the picturse Jim posted is sufficient.

- Reed
 
An 'over the top' ball turner is inexpensive and simple to make. Works pretty
well, too.

pw_handle_fix_8.jpg


pw_handle_fix_9.jpg


Results:

pw_handle_fix_11.jpg
I like this one
Just take boring bar holder and a boring head few parts and have ball turner

Dave
 
What the heck - I've decided to try my hand at making a ball turner after all. I'm using upper & lower bearings so it will turn smoothly under load. It's basically the horizontal, stacked, puck-on-a-plate design that many here have used, subtly modified to utilize the materials I have on hand:D Since I don't have a mill or a milling attachment, I'm going to have to have the tool slot in the puck cut at a machine shop. The rest I plan on doing myself. It should be fun!

One of these days, I've got to find a 9/10K milling attachment....:willy_nilly:
 
Myford has some support

Hi, Not certain if it can help you, but Myford have a new website at www.myford.com with a technical support area.:)

Regards

Spete
I was wondering if anyone here has looked at trying one of these - RDGTOOLS BALL TURNING ATTACHMENT FOR MYFORD LATHE - eBay (item 350279380901 end time Jul-13-10 02:08:52 PDT)

I would prefer to make one myself, but I don't have a milling attachment, or access to a mill, so this is not likely to be possible for me. These ones look interesting. I emailed them and asked if anyone had tried one on a SB machine (mine's a 9C), and they replied "These are designed for a 3 1/2'' centre height lathe but have been used on many different lathes, normally you would make a packing piece?".

The price seems right, and the Youtube videos on their website look like it would work well...if it could be reasonably easily adapted to a SB...

Any thoughts?
 
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