Aloha,
How hard would it be to drill a small hole (maybe 1/8") dead center through a ball?
Welcome any help.
Thank you.
How hard would it be to drill a small hole (maybe 1/8") dead center through a ball?
Welcome any help.
Thank you.
Drill A Hole Through A Ball
- Thread starter HawaiianEye
- Start date
If you know someone with a lathe it's no problem at all. You just need to take you time as it will heat up due to high friction of the phenolic
I drilled an 8 ball on a drill press....... pretty simple. Just clamp it to a fence, use a center drill to start it, and your good to go. If you need the hole in a specific spot, scribe the location onto the ball before hand.
Peck drill it.(go a 1/4" deep then back out, repeat)
Peck drill it.(go a 1/4" deep then back out, repeat)
I drill a hole through dead center every time I break. Badabump!!! Thank you, thank you!
Now I wish I had put a 9 ball shift knob on my Porsche. It would have been great.
Next time.
Robin Snyder
That is a long fairly narrow hole in a strange material. I would consult an expert to get a recommended RPM and feed rate.
Thank you kindly.
Are you making, Ass Weights?
Get a hold of Earl as he may be able to help you with the process.
Are you going to use a drill press or free hand. See if you can get a small pin punch. Tap it lightly to get a small dovot hole so the bit won't wander, cause
it will want to, badly. Even before you tap it with a hammer, see if you can wiggle it about in a circular fashion and get a small start. Then maybe give it a light tap or 2.
If you can find a Machine Shop close by you, it might be worth the minimum fee to give the balls to them. Probably take them all of about 10 minutes to do the job.
That is, if they are nice guys and don't charge you a horrendous price.
Get a hold of Earl as he may be able to help you with the process.
Are you going to use a drill press or free hand. See if you can get a small pin punch. Tap it lightly to get a small dovot hole so the bit won't wander, cause
it will want to, badly. Even before you tap it with a hammer, see if you can wiggle it about in a circular fashion and get a small start. Then maybe give it a light tap or 2.
If you can find a Machine Shop close by you, it might be worth the minimum fee to give the balls to them. Probably take them all of about 10 minutes to do the job.
That is, if they are nice guys and don't charge you a horrendous price.
Last edited:
Get the smallest brass-ferruled snooker cue you can find....
...and get Larry Nevel to break with it.
PM me for the cost of the consultation fee
FWIW, I have no intentions of trying to do this myself. I don't have the tools nor the inclination even if I did.
I have a project in mind and it requires three balls with holes through their centers. I would prefer the holes to be no larger than 1/4", at the most.
Aloha.
I have a project in mind and it requires three balls with holes through their centers. I would prefer the holes to be no larger than 1/4", at the most.
Aloha.
I was a kid (16) when I wanted to drill a ball for the shifter in my tow truck. Honestly it took 3 or 4 tries to get it right. Problems encountered were I didn't step drill it which caused the balls to either split completely in half, or it heavily flaked chunks at pilot hole. Finally perfected it by; starting with very small bit and moving up VERY slowly in size . Probably 8 bits to achieve final size . Mid rpms. Another tip, some are talking about punches - absolutely necessary - but use a spring loaded punch. Don't even think about using a hammer, spring loaded is far superior. Also only use as little pressure as needed when using a vice, even just a little too much pressure will over stress the ball and cause cracking while drilling. GL
i drilled a couple sets of the mini (1.125) balls on my drill press to use as scoring beads. If you secure a piece of wood on the table and pre-drill a shallow and wide hole to cradle the ball, it's an easy way to center the ball under the chuck. I used high speed and slow feed, and held the balls by hand while drilling. The feed was slow/light enough that there wasn't any issue with holding them. This wouldn't work for large diameter holes, but a suitable clamp could be made with another piece of wood on the top. Same as the cradle piece but drilled all the way through and clamped on the edges.
For someone with a Drill Press - it's a hanger - even easier if you have a Mill or Lathe.
But, anybody with even a little bit of know how could build a jig to do it with a hand drill.
IMHO - of course - YMMV
Dale
This is a cool idea.