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Looking for sphere turning jig

Paul Lajoie

Paul Lajoie

Joined
Jan 3, 2015
Messages
171
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Location
Western Ma.
0F481341-232E-4BBD-8BFA-96EDA8EDFB56.jpeg Wondering if anyone knows if and where these are available in the states? Saw these used on a YouTube video, tried googling but only found them but all over the pond and all info was in German. The video is turning a cylinder into a sphere. TIA



Paul
 
Paul,

Do you have link to the YouTube video? I just finished making a couple of sphere turning jigs on my metal lathe I would interested in seeing how these other tools are used.
 
No they are not necessarily a jig I just couldn’t think of another word to describe them. It just seems to me an easier way of holding and turning the sphere. Combined with the shadow of the turning. Thank you


Paul
 
Carter and sons has matching cup centers as part of their sphere jig. I once saw a demo where the turner just used them to make a sphere. He used shadows to get the sphere rather than the stand jig that carter and sons also sells. They are a little pricey in my opinion considering you could make one pretty quickly out of wood.
I don’t see the advantage of offsetting the blank shown in the video.
 
I am assum8ng you have turned som spheres using other methods.

Those centers look interesting.
It does let you turn away the shadow from the start.
The sanding ring is cool can’t sand a flat with that.


Since you have to turn a cylinder it may not be any faster than the method I use.
I’ll send you a PM. Also the last step uses cups and a cup and 1/2 flat work really well.
Rubberchucky.com has a nice set of cups and points you can turn to make a flat to push the ball into the cup.

You could make an angled sled for your bandsaw cut flats on the opposite corners of your cylinder. Then hold it with cup drive and Clive center.
 
Last edited:
I just tried this method and don’t care for it.

You don’t see the outline of a sphere when you spin then cylinder caddy corner
The middle looks close enough to spherical but the ends are way off.
The outline is sort of football with extra fat points.

Didn’t have these centers so used cup without the point in the tailstock and jambed the opposite corner in headstock spindle same way I would turn a 3 corner bowl from a cube.
This is not something to try if you might get a chatch or if you can’t take light cuts.
 
Guy Scronce said:
Carter and sons has matching cup centers as part of their sphere jig. I once saw a demo where the turner just used them to make a sphere. He used shadows to get the sphere rather than the stand jig that carter and sons also sells. They are a little pricey in my opinion considering you could make one pretty quickly out of wood.
I don’t see the advantage of offsetting the blank shown in the video.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify, the company with the sphere turning jig is Carter Products. Carter and Sons is an unrelated company that makes HSS turning tools.
 
While the Carter and the Vermec Sphere jigs are each around $400-500, you might consider the Chefware Kit EZ Radius SPhere jig. I believe it is currently around $229. I have used a Chefware kit to turn hundreds of spheres. Of course if you are only turning a few,, then the shadow method or Richard Raffan's method (that's what I learned first) is just fine.
 
Mark Jundanian said:
Just to clarify, the company with the sphere turning jig is Carter Products. Carter and Sons is an unrelated company that makes HSS turning tools.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification. I was taking about carter products M Chuck. It’s funny, I remember thinking that the demonstrator was really trying to sell those cup centers, but I couldn’t even get the company right.
 
hockenbery said:
I am assum8ng you have turned som spheres using other methods.

Those centers look interesting.
It does let you turn away the shadow from the start.
The sanding ring is cool can’t sand a flat with that.


Since you have to turn a cylinder it may not be any faster than the method I use.
I’ll send you a PM. Also the last step uses cups and a cup and 1/2 flat work really well.
Rubberchucky.com has a nice set of cups and points you can turn to make a flat to push the ball into the cup.

You could make an angled sled for your bandsaw cut flats on the opposite corners of your cylinder. Then hold it with cup drive and Clive center.
Click to expand...

Send me that PM too please.
 
bowlman said:
While the Carter and the Vermec Sphere jigs are each around $400-500, you might consider the Chefware Kit EZ Radius SPhere jig. I believe it is currently around $229. I have used a Chefware kit to turn hundreds of spheres. Of course if you are only turning a few,, then the shadow method or Richard Raffan's method (that's what I learned first) is just fine.
Click to expand...

Do you have a link to the Raffan method? I like his methods.
 
hockenbery said:
I am assum8ng you have turned som spheres using other methods.

Those centers look interesting.
It does let you turn away the shadow from the start.
The sanding ring is cool can’t sand a flat with that.


Since you have to turn a cylinder it may not be any faster than the method I use.
I’ll send you a PM. Also the last step uses cups and a cup and 1/2 flat work really well.
Rubberchucky.com has a nice set of cups and points you can turn to make a flat to push the ball into the cup.

You could make an angled sled for your bandsaw cut flats on the opposite corners of your cylinder. Then hold it with cup drive and Clive center.
Click to expand...
Yes I’ve turned a couple spheres that actually came out pretty good. These cup centers seemed to me a better way of holding the wood while turning using the shadow turning method. I have not tried the method you show in the video( deviding into half the quarter. But do plan on trying. I thank you for the video.
 
bowlman said:
While the Carter and the Vermec Sphere jigs are each around $400-500, you might consider the Chefware Kit EZ Radius SPhere jig. I believe it is currently around $229. I have used a Chefware kit to turn hundreds of spheres. Of course if you are only turning a few,, then the shadow method or Richard Raffan's method (that's what I learned first) is just fine.
Click to expand...
The title is a little deceiving, Im not looking for thecutting holder jig, but the(“cups”) that hold the piece of wood being turned. Thank you for the info tho.

Paul
 
Paul,

You might try logging into one of the European E-bay sites and see if anyone lists the sphere turning tools over there. You might find the manufacturers name that way. I spent about $50.00 for materials and several hours on the metal lathe to make the sphere turning jig that can make a sphere up to about 14" in diameter depending on the size of lathe it is installed on. The German system does look interesting as you could use a hard wood dowel any diameter cut into lengths to quickly get them roughed into a sphere. Every system out there normally requires chucking the sphere between cup centers to clean the ends of the sphere up where it was chucked up on the lathe.
 
Paul Lajoie said:
Yes I’ve turned a couple spheres that actually came out pretty good. These cup centers seemed to me a better way of holding the wood while turning using the shadow turning method. I have not tried the method you show in the video( deviding into half the quarter. But do plan on trying. I thank you for the video.
Click to expand...

1. I turned a ball using the German video method today.
Did not have those centers but chucked a cylinder on the diagonal.
The shadow image is not a sphere but it’s sort of close in the middle section.

2. The method I show is like training wheels for spheres and curves. By cutting a a lot of flats you get something close to a ball then you just cut off all the little points and a sphere is left. this forces the learner to keep cutting on or above the sphere surface.
http://aaw.hockenbery.net/Turning a ball basicsforweb.pdf

3 There is a good thread on sphere layouts started by Dennis.
http://www.aawforum.org/community/i...-aid-for-turning-spheres-without-a-jig.12187/

4. If you turn 5-6 spheres in a day using a marked layout. The next day you will be able to do away with most of the marking because you can just cut of corners without the marks getting rid of the bulk of the waste and then turn by eye. You have trained yourself using the layout not to cut too deep and stay above the surface of the sphere.

At home I only mark the center and ends of cylinder where I part in. I do use a ring a check for round.
 
While I have not used it, there is a sphere tool available at www.theokspindoctor.com Keith Clark in OK City, OK is the "OK Spin Doctor".
I have used his steady rest and other tooling and will continue - it's quality product.
John
 
Here is one of the sphere cutting tools I made for one of my smaller lathes. The base on this one has a step in the base which centers the jig between the ways so all you need to do is tighten the bolt down to secure on the ways. Depending on the lathe being used I have a spacer that raises the tools post to the correct height to bring the cutter up to the spindle center. There are two bearings in the base, one on the top base and one on the bottom base. On my larger lathe I can turn about a 16" diameter sphere with this tool.


sphere tool1.jpg
 
Mike Johnson said:
Here is one of the sphere cutting tools I made for one of my smaller lathes. The base on this one has a step in the base which centers the jig between the ways so all you need to do is tighten the bolt down to secure on the ways. Depending on the lathe being used I have a spacer that raises the tools post to the correct height to bring the cutter up to the spindle center. There are two bearings in the base, one on the top base and one on the bottom base. On my larger lathe I can turn about a 16" diameter sphere with this tool.


View attachment 28714
Click to expand...
You may have the capacity, but doesn't a bar of that diameter and length really vibrate and buzz? The Carter jig is worth every penny in my opinion, just for the micro adjustment if nothing else.
 
The cutter bar does not extend that far when you are cutting wood, you normally have it as close as possible to the vertical post, I then use the back end of the cutter bar to swing the cutter from side to side. I might make a larger diameter base plate that the pivot bar rotates on to provide more support for the flat bar that supports the vertical post. I usually turn pine spheres for molds which is pretty easy to turn compared to most hard woods.
 
There's a way to make, both concave and convex, spherical surfaces without the usual turning. It's used for ultra precision in optics among other places. But it's a natural for wood with a bit of a setup with a drill press or milling machine.

A couple of youtube videos show the process. If the link below doesn't work search youtube for "making a sphere on a milling machine".

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=making+sphere+on+a+milling+machine+

The next picture shows an adjustable tool holder that determines diameter. A tool holder like this is only needed for high precision spheres.
spherical 1.JPG

Next is a diagram with an example of the math involved for high precision.
spherical 2.JPG


Here's a sample I did by slowly hand turning the lathe as the cutter is fed down in the drill press. Crude setup using an adjustable hole cutter, does a good job though. You have to be able to chew gum and walk at the same time so best to have someone else turn the lathe while you handle the drill press down feed.

In this case I moved the floor model drill press over to the lathe so the spindle was centered over the lathe spindle.
spherical 3.JPG
 
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