Steve Bedair's

9 x 20 Lathe Site Longview , Texas 10 -2002

Ball Turning Toolpost

Harbor Freight 9 x 20 Lathe Page 4 / Turning a threaded ball

1" OD steel stock is drilled and tapped to 3/8"-16 thread.

A shoulder is cut

The 1" OD steel is cut to a length of 1".

I originally drilled a 1/4" hole and inserted an alignment pin. I don't think the alignment pin is necessary since the cutter can be aligned as shown in the next pics.

To set the cutter I just swing the ball cutter from left to right until the cutter just reaches each edge.

With the cross slide I slowly start working towards

As the cross slide is worked in the ball is formed.

the center taking light cuts left and right.

Once finished with the ball cutter I reattach the tool post and clean up a little around the threaded shoulder. Added 10-29-02:

Completed 1" ball !!!

Concave Cuts

For now

Future mod

For concave cuts you just move the toolpost / cutter towards the lathe chuck as shown on the left. I plan on adding another insert to to the toolpost as shown on the right. Thanks, Steve

Building Pics 1 Getting Started

Building Pics 2 The base

Building Pics 3 The cutter

Using The Ball Cutter

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Copyright 2002 Steve Bedair