Clean your balls on a lathe?

J

JimGill

Registered
Dirty, dirty minds! ;)

Has anyone ever set of their lathe to spin a ball for the purpose of cleaning/polishing it? I was thinking I could make a little concave delrin piece to go in the chuck and one to fit over the live center and chuck up a ball. Spin it slowly so as not to heat things up too much and use some cleaner/polish.

Pros? Cons?
 
I recommend not putting your balls in a lathe. :eek:


Sorry....couldn't resist. :smile:


Anyway...one ball at a time? Seems like a lot of work......
 
JimGill said:
Dirty, dirty minds! ;)

Has anyone ever set of their lathe to spin a ball for the purpose of cleaning/polishing it? I was thinking I could make a little concave delrin piece to go in the chuck and one to fit over the live center and chuck up a ball. Spin it slowly so as not to heat things up too much and use some cleaner/polish.

Pros? Cons?
Click to expand...

Normally, 'spin slowly' and polishing don't exactly go hand-in-hand.

Why not just use a buffing wheel? If you don't have a polisher/buffer,
mounting a buffing wheel on a a rod and spinning it it your lathe is
an option some cuemakers use.

Dale(still on the to do list)
 
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I clean my balls with a homemade cleaner I had seen on you tube with 2 bucket and a orbital buffer. Very cheap works well. Pm me I can send you pics
 
G's Cues said:
I clean my balls with a homemade cleaner I had seen on you tube with 2 bucket and a orbital buffer. Very cheap works well. Pm me I can send you pics
Click to expand...

I remember seeing the bucket thing quite a while ago. It seemed sortof random in how the balls reacted and spun, although I guess if left in long enough you'd probably still get everywhere. I didn't really like them all rubbing together (insert next ball joke here).

I probably spend about a minute or two putting the Aramith Cleaner on each ball, rubbing it in and then polishing it off with another microfiber towel. I figured I could do it at least that fast on a lathe and get a better job. Yeah, I'd have to wind out the tailstock and reposition to get the two spots covered that were at the delrin points, although I wasn't thinking I'd need to make the OD of those two things very large, just enough to keep my balls in place. ;)
 
JimGill said:
I remember seeing the bucket thing quite a while ago. It seemed sortof random in how the balls reacted and spun, although I guess if left in long enough you'd probably still get everywhere. I didn't really like them all rubbing together (insert next ball joke here).

I probably spend about a minute or two putting the Aramith Cleaner on each ball, rubbing it in and then polishing it off with another microfiber towel. I figured I could do it at least that fast on a lathe and get a better job. Yeah, I'd have to wind out the tailstock and reposition to get the two spots covered that were at the delrin points, although I wasn't thinking I'd need to make the OD of those two things very large, just enough to keep my balls in place. ;)
Click to expand...

Sometimes I have to reach in and jiggle my balls around but they are nice shinny and clean my when I am finished it really does work.
 
I use a bucket polisher... I took my time on mine and built it like I cared how it looked and worked, and it's been great for over 2 years now. I've seen some that look like a buffer was mistakenly placed in a bucket with carpet scraps, and they've usually left a lot of fuzz or glue residue on the balls if they even worked at all. The balls contacting each other hasn't appreciably affected the outcome, and the random tumbling/spinning works to distribute any polishing material you use as well as ensuring the balls are 100% cleaned or polished.

I would pay good money to set up a video camera near anyone attempting to polish balls individually in a lathe. The resulting footage could be sold for industrial safety videos!
 
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