Best way to mount a Plate-Type Ball Turn Attachment?

Bought a Radius/Ball Turning Attachment. Now that I have it, looking for idea s on how best to mount it.

Though there may be many ways to go about this....

Seems like an effective mount plate would need to be a flat spacer to place the attachment cutter at lathe centerline height and allow flush mounting to the T-Slot on the compound.

Was thinking about cutting a 3-inch tall, 4 5/16 inch diameter disk, bore a T-Post 9/16-inch counter-sunk hole in the center and drill/thread-tap attachment mounting
holes to attach/mount the ball turning attachment

.

Would use a flush-mounted hex-socket cap-Screw to mount the disk to the T-Post Base and then mount the ball turning attachment to the mounting disk.

See photo Above...This is what the ball turning attachment looks like. How have you approached mounting your attachment?

Thanks

Edit: P.S.: This is for mounting on a South Bend 10L/Heavy Ten Lathe. The Ball Turner is 2-inches from base bottom to tip/point of cutting insert.

to what machine?

how tall is the ball turner to cutting tip?

Remove compound. Make a plate shaped like the underside of compound, with the correct height to put the tool on center.

allan

Thanks for the replies...

The lathe is a South Bend 10L/Heavy Ten. The ball turner measures Two-inches from base/bottom to tip/point of cutting insert.

What about using a spare lower compound half? Maybe bolt or weld them up?

Your photo leave much to be desired. What does the underside look like? Is there something there to mount?

To work correctly, the tip of the tool has to be on the lathe centerline. Depending on what the bottom looks like will determine the shape of any spacer.

Thanks for the replies/ideas.

First, I’ll need to measure the height of the Crossfeed and compound to know how much height I have to work with to place the ball turning attachment cutter on lathe centerline (approximately 5-inches from the lathe Bed for this 10-inch swing lathe.)

If height allows, was thinking a mounting disk could work attached to the compound. If not, I will need to mount it to the Crossfeed.

Here are a couple more photos of the attachment. It is flat/flush on the base. Two screws are used to attach the ball turning attachment to the lathe.




Was considering drilling a Counterbore hole in the center of the attachment mount that I make to use for mounting the attachment on the compound using the Tool Post T-Slot and a Socket Head Cap Screw-9/16 bolt.




Kind of like this (below), except with the hole counterbored, not countersunk and a threaded hole on both sides for mounting the ball turning attachment to the disk mount.



Sort of like this, but a disk the size of the attachment and a threaded mounting hole at the edge of each side of the disk.

Heavy 10 barely swings 5"'over the carriage. Your ball turner will have to go in on place of the compound.

The "circular dovetail" on the bottom of the compound is pretty easy to replicate and you'll be able to make up the extra height you need at the same time.

Thanks. It’s looking that way. My lathe is 7 miles away, so I visited it last night for dimensions. Looks like a dovetail is in my future.

DC

I visited my lathe again tonight and pulled the compound. Been a couple years since I had it apart.

Maybe I could just mount it to the Crossfeed/saddle? Forgot/ didn’t realize there were all those holes.

assuming you are using a QCTP, have you considered an over the top style ball turner?

Thanks for the reply and suggestion.

Actually, since I just bought the ball turning attachment (that I now) and though it wasn’t a fortune, I am not in the mood to buy another (of the tool-post mounted design) anytime soon.

I think this will work out now after removing the compound.

Looks like a 3/4 Adapter/spacer can be mounted to the Crossfeed/slide using existing holes and the Ball Turning Adapter can be mounted to the adapter.

That said, If I am not happy with the mounting and/or performance, I’ll consider buying the tool-post mounted design.

Thanks again,
DC