My home-made ball polisher.
- Thread starter mattman
- Start date
It is ready for prime time
The Ball Cleaner and Polisher is completed (see photos below) and I am now taking orders. The price is $95.50 plus shipping for the first ten. I already have a few orders.
It features
A barstool swivel under a terrycloth encased platen.
Felt Ball holders
Sheep skin polishing covers.
Easy access to the balls after cleaning and polishing. (See photo two)
To use turn the crank. Cranking with normal arm motion moves the balls fast. A two year old child can rotate the crank with no difficulty
Slow cranking for a few turns of the platen rotates the balls on the horizontal axis.
After the balls have dried (or glazed over when using the Aramith ball cleaner) the artificial sheep skin buffer pad is placed on the balls. Normal cranking produces a high shine.
The whole process takes less than five minutes and the balls are ready for use.
The Ball Cleaner and Polisher is completed (see photos below) and I am now taking orders. The price is $95.50 plus shipping for the first ten. I already have a few orders.
It features
A barstool swivel under a terrycloth encased platen.
Felt Ball holders
Sheep skin polishing covers.
Easy access to the balls after cleaning and polishing. (See photo two)
To use turn the crank. Cranking with normal arm motion moves the balls fast. A two year old child can rotate the crank with no difficulty
Slow cranking for a few turns of the platen rotates the balls on the horizontal axis.
After the balls have dried (or glazed over when using the Aramith ball cleaner) the artificial sheep skin buffer pad is placed on the balls. Normal cranking produces a high shine.
The whole process takes less than five minutes and the balls are ready for use.
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Joe, Look Good. Again Good Luck with the venture.
Bob
Bob
Am interested please contact me at mr8ball@comcast.net
I cleaned 6 sets of old Centennials last night with a Diamond Polisher and they all came out looking new, WOW, I will take before and after pics soon, I'm not compairing it to Joes Idea or anyone elses, the reason I mention it is because it is possible to make balls look almost new again, I wantto post pics for a referance, I applaude all you gentalmen here for making a affordable polisher, I got the diamond because I have 25 sets of balls and more comming down the road often so it makes sence for me to have a commercial unit,
Important point:
What I have noticed is even when you get then sparkling like new they do dull up faster than new balls, after about 30 hours of play they need to be re-polished, the older the balls the more often because there are more collision marks, scratches(shiny scratches after polishing) that dont come off with a polisher if they did the balls would shrink up too much. But they do play like new balls for along time afterwards so its 100% worth the effort to have a polisher, home made, commercial, or something else.
again this isnt a knock to anyones ideas, I am just complementing everyone for doing their own thing, cause nothing plays like clean balls, I have a set of balls I'm kinda tracking the use of and gonna see how long they last until they shrink from play, polishing.
Important point:
What I have noticed is even when you get then sparkling like new they do dull up faster than new balls, after about 30 hours of play they need to be re-polished, the older the balls the more often because there are more collision marks, scratches(shiny scratches after polishing) that dont come off with a polisher if they did the balls would shrink up too much. But they do play like new balls for along time afterwards so its 100% worth the effort to have a polisher, home made, commercial, or something else.
again this isnt a knock to anyones ideas, I am just complementing everyone for doing their own thing, cause nothing plays like clean balls, I have a set of balls I'm kinda tracking the use of and gonna see how long they last until they shrink from play, polishing.
Nice job Joe. It looks great. And looks to be worth the price.
Just a suggestion for the next evolution of ball cleaners. It seems to me that in order to polish efficiently, whatever you're polishing should be stationary while the polisher is moving, or vice versa. An analogy would be if someone placed a rotary polisher on the hood of a car he wouldn't want to let go of it.
The balls or the polishing surface should be stationary to be truly efficient and quick. Or even better, moving in opposite directions.
An example of an idea that might work is to pin a row of balls against a side wall while buffing underneath or on top. Maybe after a few seconds, the entire row can be rolled to another position, still pinned against the wall. And so on.
Just a suggestion for the next evolution of ball cleaners. It seems to me that in order to polish efficiently, whatever you're polishing should be stationary while the polisher is moving, or vice versa. An analogy would be if someone placed a rotary polisher on the hood of a car he wouldn't want to let go of it.
The balls or the polishing surface should be stationary to be truly efficient and quick. Or even better, moving in opposite directions.
An example of an idea that might work is to pin a row of balls against a side wall while buffing underneath or on top. Maybe after a few seconds, the entire row can be rolled to another position, still pinned against the wall. And so on.
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Thanks Bluepepper. I will have to think about how to do that. I follow the idea and I agree with you that holding one or the other stationary such as when cleaning by hand is more efficient in terms of energy. I am not sure how to translate that into a mechanical system that is efficient. Hmmm
EDIT
Oh to some extent I am doing that. The balls roll on the platen when cleaning. After they are dry or hazed over the polisher is placed on top and it is stationary. I had not thought of it but that is probably why they get a high shine so quickly. Perhaps if I made a cleaner pad for the first pass that too would clean faster. In that way the platten turns the balls and the pad on top is stationary for cleaning and polishing with two different sets of pads. Thanks I will try that.
EDIT
Oh to some extent I am doing that. The balls roll on the platen when cleaning. After they are dry or hazed over the polisher is placed on top and it is stationary. I had not thought of it but that is probably why they get a high shine so quickly. Perhaps if I made a cleaner pad for the first pass that too would clean faster. In that way the platten turns the balls and the pad on top is stationary for cleaning and polishing with two different sets of pads. Thanks I will try that.
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Joe, maybe something intermittent is the key. The balls roll on the platen, but on top, pressure strong enough to freeze the balls in place for a moment will quickly polish a portion of the balls. Every few seconds maybe?
Maybe the plastic piece of the crank handle should be shortened to allow attachment of a pressure device that can be pressed downwards intermittently while turning.
Maybe the plastic piece of the crank handle should be shortened to allow attachment of a pressure device that can be pressed downwards intermittently while turning.
The balls weigh six onces each and too much pressure will stop them from spinning. The current polishing pad works for polishing and I think that a terry cloth towel on the flip side will be sufficent "grit" and weight for cleaning.
I have yet to try it to see if they clean faster and better with a stationary pad but it makes sense and I think I will use this modification. Thank you.
I have yet to try it to see if they clean faster and better with a stationary pad but it makes sense and I think I will use this modification. Thank you.
Pepper,
as long as the balls spin slower than the disc under them then its good, if they act as bearings and just roll with exact speed of the the plate/disc then they wont polish, the Diamond is a open top with a sprocket in the middle and it is just the weight of the balls and the outward fore from spoinning that polishes them, on the laft side where you put the polishing compound if you put alot some balls spin faster than others in the beginning because the friction is higher, at the end of a 20 minute cycle they are just free rolling, Joe is on the right track, you dont want the balls to not move because the surface you would polish would be small, if they move less than the turn table then your golden because you end up polishing the whole ball at once, thus ending up with evenly polished balls.
as long as the balls spin slower than the disc under them then its good, if they act as bearings and just roll with exact speed of the the plate/disc then they wont polish, the Diamond is a open top with a sprocket in the middle and it is just the weight of the balls and the outward fore from spoinning that polishes them, on the laft side where you put the polishing compound if you put alot some balls spin faster than others in the beginning because the friction is higher, at the end of a 20 minute cycle they are just free rolling, Joe is on the right track, you dont want the balls to not move because the surface you would polish would be small, if they move less than the turn table then your golden because you end up polishing the whole ball at once, thus ending up with evenly polished balls.
joe
if you use the drawing i made, to increase the contact surface, the balls will be spinning very slow (as there is much more friction from the spacer) but underneath it will spin very fast. I think this is the golden balance. Slow roling balls and fast spinning underneath.
making 2 pares to put on top of your machine would surely be an added value.
good luck on the V123 of the homemade ballpolisher
if you use the drawing i made, to increase the contact surface, the balls will be spinning very slow (as there is much more friction from the spacer) but underneath it will spin very fast. I think this is the golden balance. Slow roling balls and fast spinning underneath.
making 2 pares to put on top of your machine would surely be an added value.
good luck on the V123 of the homemade ballpolisher
JoeW said:
JoeW; have you left the idea of that 7" polish machine you linked to earlier? Would this machine not be strong enough to be mounted to a movable "separating table" which rotates (by the machine) over a stationary pad?
Was just wondering if I should go for that 7" look a like I can get here. I would make my own large polish disk to attach to this or possibly a similar thing as shown at the data rendered image at page 3....
N
Newton said, "JoeW; have you left the idea of that 7" polish machine you linked to earlier? Would this machine not be strong enough to be mounted to a movable "separating table" which rotates (by the machine) over a stationary pad?"
I think that you mean the one based on the Grinder from Harbor Freight. The first one I made is still in use. It has a 12 AMP motor. However, when I ordered two new grinders for the next machines I found that they were slightly differet machines with 9.? AMP motors. Both of these machines burned out within five minutes of use and I gave up on that idea as motors seemed to be too costly.
In addition I have recently learned that a rug should not be used for polishing. The rug does not yield the same shine as a terrycloth towel.
The current system is using a platen for cleaning and ball rotation. Two opposing sets of stationary buffers are also used: One for cleaning and one for polishing. It does not use or need an electric motor. In a few days I will post and sell the plans on my web site for $13.00. Normal wood shop tools are needed to build this types of machine.
I think that you mean the one based on the Grinder from Harbor Freight. The first one I made is still in use. It has a 12 AMP motor. However, when I ordered two new grinders for the next machines I found that they were slightly differet machines with 9.? AMP motors. Both of these machines burned out within five minutes of use and I gave up on that idea as motors seemed to be too costly.
In addition I have recently learned that a rug should not be used for polishing. The rug does not yield the same shine as a terrycloth towel.
The current system is using a platen for cleaning and ball rotation. Two opposing sets of stationary buffers are also used: One for cleaning and one for polishing. It does not use or need an electric motor. In a few days I will post and sell the plans on my web site for $13.00. Normal wood shop tools are needed to build this types of machine.
Fatboy said:
Thanks for explaining. It makes sense that as long as the balls are very slowly spinning some serious polishing is happening. Question though. It takes 20 minutes to clean the balls?
Just to clarify, I was suggesting to stop the balls with pressure every 2 or 3 seconds so that a small section does indeed get polished, but then you release the pressure so that the balls spin to another section to polish, alternating pressure with release until all sections are polished.
3andstop said:bluepepper, the next step up from manual labor. Glue a little carpet in the bucket, and you're done.
That's exactly what I've done and it DOES work just fine. Clean balls in about 4 min.
Joe: I really like your hand crank machine idea. I'm be studying it.
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Hi Jim, good to hear from you. I will have the plans for sale on my web site soon. But you and a few others on here have contributed much to the development of the ideas. So if you or the others who have been involved in this long discussion PM me I will send you a set of plans at no cost (when they are ready). I am hesitant to send out plans to the others unless they request as I am not a pushy kinda guy. I think the people who have contributed know who they are. This has been a long ongoing discussion and the new system is one I am pleased to offer for sale with a money back guarentee -- that is how good it is.
The differerence in your rug based machine and mine may be due to the types of materials used. The rug I have is some sort of polyester with 1" threads that are densely packed. I had not known how different the polishing was until I used the terry cloth based machine. Try using a terry cloth to polish a few of the balls after you clean and see if the shine improves. Maybe - maybe not depending on your rug. I think a higher shine may contribute to a harder surface application of the Aramith chemistry (I don't want to call it wax or Bob Jewett will jump on me).
Pepper it takes about 3 -4 minutes to clean and polish. That includes waiting about one minnute for the Aramith chemistry to haze over. It is surprising how fast this machine rotates with the hand crank. It is an 18" platen turned by a five inch crank. It moves the balls nearly as fast as my drill was moving it but not as fast as the old Harbor Freight grinder -- that baby spun too fast anf even now I run it at less than half speed.
The differerence in your rug based machine and mine may be due to the types of materials used. The rug I have is some sort of polyester with 1" threads that are densely packed. I had not known how different the polishing was until I used the terry cloth based machine. Try using a terry cloth to polish a few of the balls after you clean and see if the shine improves. Maybe - maybe not depending on your rug. I think a higher shine may contribute to a harder surface application of the Aramith chemistry (I don't want to call it wax or Bob Jewett will jump on me).
Pepper it takes about 3 -4 minutes to clean and polish. That includes waiting about one minnute for the Aramith chemistry to haze over. It is surprising how fast this machine rotates with the hand crank. It is an 18" platen turned by a five inch crank. It moves the balls nearly as fast as my drill was moving it but not as fast as the old Harbor Freight grinder -- that baby spun too fast anf even now I run it at less than half speed.
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I'm using a close cut hard carpet on the bottom (almost like outdoor carpet), adhesive backed felt around the sides and an expensive long "haired" wool pad on my polisher. I've often wondered if I'd get better results by changing the materials on the bottom and the sides to a somewhat softer and more plush... if you will... material, perhaps like terry cloth towling. I simply haven't gotten around to finding a way to adhere that type of material to the side of the bucket and then cutting a wood circle to which I would glue the towling.