My completed ball polisher

Shaft said:

(I would like to post pictures, but I don't know how. My pictures are 1.2 Meg and I am limited to 100k. Any advice on that would be appreciated.)

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You can download the Image Resizer application from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/Downloads/powertoys/Xppowertoys.mspx About 3/4ths the way down on the right side.


Very convenient. Very easy. Once you load it, you right click your photo and "resize" is one of the choices in the menu that pops up. You have your choice of resizing the photo from small to large.

Fred

I also completed mine last night and had a discovery. I have always used the Aramith ball polishing compound and a buffing wheel on one of my lathes. I started the first 8 balls of a older set of centennials with this product and they came out sort of OK. The last 7 balls I did with Meguiars cleaner wax and wow what a difference the Meguiars cleaned the scuff marks off the balls better then the Aramith and shined them much better. I then put a clean terry cloth pad on the top of the fleece polish wheel and spun them again to clean more of the wax residue off the balls because I don't wand it on the Simonis, and they look really skiddy if that makes sense. I did not use a divider but the polisher works like a charm. Good luck on your photos and I will try to add my own.

Could someone post a link to how to make it. Thank you. Johnnyt

Try this you nineball ghost wrecker :grin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O5A6ON_bJU

This is one of the first posts that I was shown by a fellow AZER.
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=71033&highlight=ball+cleaner

I built one of these inexpensive ball polishers with one center divider. Mine works well, but I like your idea of using the terry cloth divider to keep the balls separated during cleaning.

James

Cuebuddy said:

I also completed mine last night and had a discovery. I have always used the Aramith ball polishing compound and a buffing wheel on one of my lathes. I started the first 8 balls of a older set of centennials with this product and they came out sort of OK. The last 7 balls I did with Meguiars cleaner wax and wow what a difference the Meguiars cleaned the scuff marks off the balls better then the Aramith and shined them much better. I then put a clean terry cloth pad on the top of the fleece polish wheel and spun them again to clean more of the wax residue off the balls because I don't wand it on the Simonis, and they look really skiddy if that makes sense. I did not use a divider but the polisher works like a charm. Good luck on your photos and I will try to add my own.

Click to expand...

The Meguiars cleaner/wax is great for cleaning balls. It's what I've been using for a couple of years now.

I also made one of those 5-gallon bucket ball polishers a few weeks ago and wow does it work great. My buddies were impressed when I brought it over to clean their balls.

Here is a quickie cleaner, works great, done building before you start and all you need is a little carpet in the bucket. I posted this a while back, but in case you haven't seen or thought of this idea, it really does the job with minimal effort in terms of building. For a cleaner I use plastic motorcycle windshield cleaner cut 50/50 with water. Simply throw the balls in and buff em.

Wow. Just polished my first set. Awsome. If you have a home table, this is a must.

I used the 10" Ryobi polisher, a Home Depot 5 gal. bucket, some really soft baby blanket for the sides of the bucket. I also added some light pressure from the top. I cut a thin piece of plywood in a 10" circle shape. I pulled and stapled some soft cloth onto this board. Then once the balls are spinning around good, I just laid the cover on top. You don't even need to wipe them off when you take them out. I can't believe it. They come out really sweet. :thumbup: Very little money invested and you can do a whole set at once.

Thanks guys for the idea.

i'm frustrated.

ive got everything at home to do the job, but I CAN'T find a bucket thats right for it.

70% of them are JUST to small. Its ok when you put the orbital in it, but as soon as it spins its needs more clearence as it don't just turns around but also moves sideways. The only bucket i found big enough are waste buckets but they are like 20inch diameter and way to big.

Maybe its the metric system from europe, but every bucket i find is JUST an inch or 3 to small. bins, buckets, paint buckets, anything i can find.

What would it cost to ship two of those buckets to europe?

John Schmidt's Ball Cleaner/Polisher

Shaft,
That is a nice job you did on the ball polisher. Thanks for posting the pictures.

Another thing that I did that may lengthen the longevity of my ball polisher is that: Since the Ryobi Orbital Polisher has the air vent on the very bottom of the unit when the polishing surface is facing upward, I used two buckets placed one inside of the other.

The bucket which holds the polisher has a hole in the center of the bottom of the bucket the same diameter as the lower portion of the polisher (about 4 1/2"). This bucket unit is placed inside of another bucket which has perforated holes all the way around the bottom of the unit, allowing the hot air to escape easily. The top bucket doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the bottom bucket and has a few inches of clearance in the bottom of the bucket.

You just have to be careful about aligning the side holes for the electrical cord to go through the side of both buckets.

I think it was John Schmidt who originally came up with the original type of orbital ball polisher design and wanted to give credit where credit was due.

JoeyA (the two bucket man)

If you own good quality aramith balls they won't leave marks by banging each other in the bucket and you can clean the whole set at once. Ten on the perimeter and six in the center with the buffer sitting right at the bottom of a bucket. Cheap balls like the one's at most taverns will come out with marks all over them unless you insulate them from one another. It's just the materials used in the balls. This I have found from experience. You should build your cleaner depending on what type of balls you want to clean with them. Hope this helps explain all the different experiences folks in this thread seem to have building and using these machines.

JC

I use the cleaner wax and my lathe, works great but takes a long time to do them 1 at a time. I made a couple of Delrin cups to hold the ball between, after I polish part of the ball I stop lathe and rotate the ball 90 deg. to finish. I gotta make a ball polisher to do at least half the rack at once, that will come right after refinishing the table and building the table light. At least the table is almost done, if I get the rails back early next week it will have been less than 3 weeks to sand off paint, stain, recalibrate rails, tighten pockets, new Artemis, new Simonis, a new set of Centennials, and a Delta 13, now all I need to do is learn how to shoot

I used mine for 4 years and just gave it to a friend Monday. Cost me $40=$10 a year. Johnnyt

Best Results

I find that using this with polishing compound of some sort works awesome:

http://www.google.com/shopping/prod...a=X&ei=v_IbUYuuJsqDyAHYvoGgDw&ved=0CHkQ8wIwAQ

But it takes a little time and some elbow grease.