Turning Marbles on the Wood Lathe by Dick Sing

[Chris DeHut]

Learn how to turn a marble or ball on the wood lathe!
World renowned wood turner, Dick Sing walks you through the process step by step.

I will be posting a video series of about 30 videos related to wood turning with Dick Sing. These videos were part of my original DVD video magazine, Woodworking at Home Magazine that was produced about 20 years ago. The value of Dick's presentations cannot be overstated and they must be shared for all to see. I hope you all have the time to watch them and learn from Dick's wisdom.
Cheers!
Chris DeHut

 

[Tom Albrecht]

Thank you!

 

[robo hippy]

It has been a while since I turned any spheres. One point Allen Batty made when I did a work shop with him was from his days of making billiard balls from elephant ivory. for final turnings, they would use a tube type jamb chuck, and the sides had to be spot on parallel. I guess if this was applied to this type of sphere making, you would need a bunch of them. Another one from a friend. After first roughing, when he placed it between centers, he would spin it by hand to make sure the rough out was even between centers. He would tap it until it was properly centered. I had noticed in my first attempts that the blanks would not be running exactly true. I had thought the cup centers would perfectly center the piece. They didn't, but that could at least be partly because my rough outs were pretty rough....

robo hippy

 

[hockenbery]

Dick is a master turner and his sphere methods will work for many.

I do a variation that has enabled all of my workshop students to succeed.

- First off I use a 1/2” dia leather covered center on the tailstock Instead of a second cup. I learned this from Cristian Burchard.
This makes it much easier to center the not yet round ball that students get - Dick’s balls are round when he rotates the axis.

- I teach a methodical method of sneaking up on the curve. This keeps the students from cutting too deep most of the time.
Sort of like training wheels until they can turn a ball by eye.

- I also teach using a bowl gouge.

Sneaking up on the curve .

In a perfect octagon cross section the center of each face is on the surface of the sphere

Simple layout cut the cylinder length equal to the diameter. Mark the center
I use .4D as the octagon face. It is about a pencil line thickness in error.
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One other trick is to use a ring to test for round. I learned this in 10 th grade but I learned how to use it in turning sphere from Christian Burchard. And the idea for the PVC rings came from Soren Burger

 

[GRJensen]

I use a rubber chair leg tip (a pack of 4 sells for about $2 at the big box) on the tailstock's live center. Makes centering the rough sphere easier and provides a firm-enough hold. I put a steel washer in the tip to keep the live center's spur from poking through.

 

[Tom Albrecht]

Hockenbery, I do not see a photo of your "leather covered center". Can you show one?
Thanks

 

[hockenbery]

Hockenbery, I do not see a photo of your "leather covered center". Can you show one?
Thanks

There is a small view in the lower right of the sneaking up on the curve
I pressure fit these over the tail center drill a hole close to the size a wrap of masking tape makes the fit tighter


In use. …………………………. RUBBER CHUCKY version
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