"Gold Crown" Ball Polisher

rexus31 said:
The spinning platter is offset to line up on the edge of one end of the lid opening (just like the Diamond unit). This offset is what causes the balls to
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Are you sure about that? The Diamond machines have sprockets that kind of sling the balls around as they go, plus they spin in tighter circles with only 8 balls each . I have a Bludworth machine and and offsetting the tray won't really do anything as far as I can tell. The felt underneath the ball will move in a slight arc whether there is an offset or not. The ball will just set up against one side of the hole it is in and spin in place place like a gyroscope. With my machine the lid is a bit flexible and it rattles back-and-forth as the balls spin. For about the 1st 10 seconds all of the balls spin in place without turning over but 1 by 1 they start to rattle and quickly all of them are rattling as they spin. Actually they kind of rock side to side gently but it gets the job done. Have you spoken to anyone about this or are you just assuming it will work?

I also just realized that you are the guy who probably just bought a Tesla today!
 
Dan White said:
Are you sure about that? The Diamond machines have sprockets that kind of sling the balls around as they go, plus they spin in tighter circles with only 8 balls each . I have a Bludworth machine and and offsetting the tray won't really do anything as far as I can tell. The felt underneath the ball will move in a slight arc whether there is an offset or not. The ball will just set up against one side of the hole it is in and spin in place place like a gyroscope. With my machine the lid is a bit flexible and it rattles back-and-forth as the balls spin. For about the 1st 10 seconds all of the balls spin in place without turning over but 1 by 1 they start to rattle and quickly all of them are rattling as they spin. Actually they kind of rock side to side gently but it gets the job done. Have you spoken to anyone about this or are you just assuming it will work?

I also just realized that you are the guy who probably just bought a Tesla today!
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LOL...the goal is not to buy, just to research but you never know!

Yes, the offset of the platter in relation to the opening is what causes the balls to spiral. Glen, aka RKC who engineered the Diamond unit which mine is based confirmed this is what causes the spiraling effect. The speed is also a factor. If it is spinning too fast the centrifugal force will be too great to enable the spiraling, thus the 4:1 reduction on the motor.
 
rexus31 said:
LOL...the goal is not to buy, just to research but you never know!

Yes, the offset of the platter in relation to the opening is what causes the balls to spiral. Glen, aka RKC who engineered the Diamond unit which mine is based confirmed this is what causes the spiraling effect. The speed is also a factor. If it is spinning too fast the centrifugal force will be too great to enable the spiraling, thus the 4:1 reduction on the motor.
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Yeah I can't figure out why an offset would matter at all. The felt is still moving in the same arc under the ball either way. I could see it being sensitive to speed though.
 
Maybe Glen will chime in as the the why. He explained to to me but it was a little over my head...lol. All I know is the balls spiral on this machine and they do not in my homemade bucket polisher.
 
Dan White said:
Yeah I can't figure out why an offset would matter at all. The felt is still moving in the same arc under the ball either way. I could see it being sensitive to speed though.
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The platter being offset means the balls are being pushed slightly sideways on the platter which is probably what induces the extra spin .
 
TrxR said:
The platter being offset means the balls are being pushed slightly sideways on the platter which is probably what induces the extra spin .
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Are they? Look at my machine. If we move the felt platter under the balls to the left about three inches all that happens is that the one ball would take the place of the 2 ball.
20220116_135507.jpg
 
If the balls are held in place like they are and you move something underneath them the friction will make them turn. The way I look at it , with the platter being offset it's more or less moving towards and away from the round opening and since the balls can't as they are in contact with the sprocket and outer walls it creates a small amount off friction on the bottom of the ball which makes it rotate. Almost like a orbital polisher.
 
Dan White said:
Are they? Look at my machine. If we move the felt platter under the balls to the left about three inches all that happens is that the one ball would take the place of the 2 ball.
View attachment 624766
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You can't compare the two because they are two completely different designs. Centrifugal force is not a key contributor in your unit because the balls are contained to a finite space not much larger than the diameter of the ball and are not rotating along the extreme outside of the unit. The balls on the Diamond are pushed to the outside wall by way of centrifugal force. The sprocket is really only preventing them from colliding with one another. The offset platter causes the side spin of the balls with the centrifugal force and optimal rpm doing the rest to create a spiraling motion.
 
realkingcobra said:
when I get over to his side of the mountains I'll even be working with him to get his GC4 set up, and dialed in right, pockets and all, but he's doing most of the work, while I drink coffee, because that's what HE wants, and again I have no objections to working with Charles to get him the best he can have.
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I'm leaving you the easy part, the rails 🤣 But seriously I can't see wasting RKC's time on grunt work like pulling staples and removing layers of contact cement. (censored) staples (censored) (censored).
 
Dan White said:
Yeah I can't figure out why an offset would matter at all. The felt is still moving in the same arc under the ball either way. I could see it being sensitive to speed though.
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By off setting the platter under the balls, it creates an oblong rotation of the carpeting under the balls as they're spinning,
Dan White said:
Are they? Look at my machine. If we move the felt platter under the balls to the left about three inches all that happens is that the one ball would take the place of the 2 ball.
View attachment 624766
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Are you aware that the 5 balls in the center travel less in spin clean/shine than the outer balls do?
 
realkingcobra said:
By off setting the platter under the balls, it creates an oblong rotation of the carpeting under the balls as they're spinning,
Are you aware that the 5 balls in the center travel less in spin clean/shine than the outer balls do?
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I just reread this whole thread and I missed a couple of things. I did not realize that the balls were moving in a sprocket like the regular Diamond design.

Yes, I understand that the balls in the center will get less cleaning than the balls around the perimeter but that doesn't really matter if they're all clean they're all clean. I would much prefer to have all 16 balls cleaned at the same time rather than doing 2 batches of 8. Just personal preference I guess. I do think that the Diamond design is better than the Bludworth as far as cleaning each ball thoroughly, but on the other hand the Blud is more compact and does all 16. Maybe if you had a sprocket inside a sprocket you could do all 16 in a similar sized unit?

Again, great project!
 
Dan White said:
I just reread this whole thread and I missed a couple of things. I did not realize that the balls were moving in a sprocket like the regular Diamond design.

Yes, I understand that the balls in the center will get less cleaning than the balls around the perimeter but that doesn't really matter if they're all clean they're all clean. I would much prefer to have all 16 balls cleaned at the same time rather than doing 2 batches of 8. Just personal preference I guess. I do think that the Diamond design is better than the Bludworth as far as cleaning each ball thoroughly, but on the other hand the Blud is more compact and does all 16. Maybe if you had a sprocket inside a sprocket you could do all 16 in a similar sized unit?

Again, great project!
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The Coriolis Effect would create the off axis rotation.
 
Dan White said:
Yeah I can't figure out why an offset would matter at all. The felt is still moving in the same arc under the ball either way. I could see it being sensitive to speed though.
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If the platter was centered under the balls, each perimeter "ring" of balls would be getting the exact same constant motion and speed from the platter and they would have a tendency to want to spin on one axis. Because each distance from the center of the platter is rotating at a different speed (one inch from the outside edge of the platter is spinning a whole lot faster than one inch from the center of the platter is spinning), when the platter is offset to the balls this allows for the effective direction and speed of the platter to change in relation to any particular ball location and as the sprocket rotates the balls around its 360 degrees this causes every ball to be rotated around all axes.

Put more succinctly, as the sprocket rotates around this allows each of the balls to constantly encounter a different part of the platter that is going a slightly different speed/direction because of the platter offset which in turn causes the balls to be rotated about all their axes.
 
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What if the machine is also on a slight angle (as in not level)?

Wouldn’t that have the balls contacting the sprocket more then contacting the walls more as the balls go around in the circle?
 
stevelomako said:
What if the machine is also on a slight angle (as in not level)?

Wouldn’t that have the balls contacting the sprocket more then contacting the walls more as the balls go around in the circle?
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Look at the picture in post #124 (linked below) and try to picture what would happen and the answer is quite obvious.

"Gold Crown" Ball Polisher

First, huge shoutout to Glen for his assistance thus far on my project. I restored my Gold Crown I about two years ago with matching custom Gold Crown Light I built and I also restored a Gold Crown Cue Rack for my room. I've been using a bucket polisher for years to polish my ball sets (16 at...
forums.azbilliards.com

Because of gravity, at any one time half the balls (the downhill half) would be contacting/have increased friction with the walls more, and the other half (the uphill half) would be contacting/have increased friction with the sprocket more.
 
Poolplaya9 said:
Look at the picture in post #124 (linked below) and try to picture what would happen and the answer is quite obvious.

"Gold Crown" Ball Polisher

First, huge shoutout to Glen for his assistance thus far on my project. I restored my Gold Crown I about two years ago with matching custom Gold Crown Light I built and I also restored a Gold Crown Cue Rack for my room. I've been using a bucket polisher for years to polish my ball sets (16 at...
forums.azbilliards.com

Because of gravity, at any one time half the balls (the downhill half) would be contacting/have increased friction with the walls more, and the other half (the uphill half) would be contacting/have increased friction with the sprocket more.
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So wouldn’t that be better?

Right now any machine is level and they’re just being pushed around and getting polished by their own weight.


Think if you take all the balls on a pool table and put them in a triangle, now spin the triangle around in a circle.

Now put that same table on an angle and spin the balls around…more friction on the triangle.


We’re not talking about a 45 degree angle you know, just enough to get more contact on two different surfaces.
 
Dan White said:
I just reread this whole thread and I missed a couple of things. I did not realize that the balls were moving in a sprocket like the regular Diamond design.

Yes, I understand that the balls in the center will get less cleaning than the balls around the perimeter but that doesn't really matter if they're all clean they're all clean. I would much prefer to have all 16 balls cleaned at the same time rather than doing 2 batches of 8. Just personal preference I guess. I do think that the Diamond design is better than the Bludworth as far as cleaning each ball thoroughly, but on the other hand the Blud is more compact and does all 16. Maybe if you had a sprocket inside a sprocket you could do all 16 in a similar sized unit?

Again, great project!
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You haven't seen the Diamond 16 ball polisher?
 
stevelomako said:
So wouldn’t that be better?

Right now any machine is level and they’re just being pushed around and getting polished by their own weight.


Think if you take all the balls on a pool table and put them in a triangle, now spin the triangle around in a circle.

Now put that same table on an angle and spin the balls around…more friction on the triangle.


We’re not talking about a 45 degree angle you know, just enough to get more contact on two different surfaces.
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Being at an angle wouldn't change the centrifical force of the balls spinning.
 
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