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sphere within a sphere - Chinese balls

Raul McCai

Raul McCai

Joined
Oct 29, 2014
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nj
Know of any good instructional material? I know it's possible. I know that Chinese balls have their own set of tools people use. I've seen Hockenberry's work. Right now If I were to give it a go it'd be cheating by turning spheres and slicing them in half and re-gluing them to get the spheres inside the spheres.
 
Fred Holder - he started the More Woodturning magazine - sold the tools and had detailed instructions on how to use them. Fred retired and the magazine (on-line only) is in other hands now. Don’t know how to get them now. I may have a copy squirrelled away on a hard drive somewhere. I’ll have a look if you’re interested.
 
David Springett is the Chinese ball guy and the developer of tools to turn them.
Woodturning wizardry is the book you want.

Tools can be made or you can buy the Springett tools for about $150
Craft supplies has a nice bundle for $162 you get woodturning wizardry and the Chinese ball tools.
I think there was an article in the AAW journal i’ll look for it.

P.S. Fred got quite good at the Chinese balls and demoed them at many clubs. He was using David’s tools and learned the techniques from David.
 
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Honoring David Ellsworth ( another turner whose work is intimidatingly good)

Armed with some of that article I found this
19_All_7_Undercut_thumb.jpg
 
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I have turned a number of nested wood balls that are used for different sized forms used in making Pyrotechnic shell casings 3" thru 24" in diameter. These wood forms have a mating joint at the equator of each sphere which allows them to come apart. I can ship a complete set of forms in one box which saves a lot on shipping for the end user. I have made these out of several types of wood and made a few sets that were segmented in design.
 
Mike Johnson said:
used in making Pyrotechnic
Click to expand...

Is it easier just turning hollow forms one inside the other than it would be to turn a series of hollow forms and split them to get the smaller ones inside the larger ones and re-gluing them? Or is there some structural reason they can't be made from split and re-glued hollow balls?
Got any pics of these BoomBalls?
 
"Or is there some structural reason they can't be made from split and re-glued hollow balls?\" Yes, but then you wouldn't have the "How'djhedoit" looks!:rolleyes:
 
In 1959 I was in Hong Kong and bought an Ivory chess set that had all of the pieces set atop Chinese concentric balls. I purchased it at the exchange here, but had to go to the factory to pick it up. When I got to the shop I was invited to go into the shop and see them being made. The shop turned out to be the basement which was crowded and rather dimly lit. The balls were being turned by thin (poorly nourished) men in under shirts and baggy pants on peddle operated lathes. The lathes were driven by a leather string looped over a short length of bamboo which was about 4" in diameter. The ball rotated in one direction on the downstroke of one pedal and then reversed rotation on the downstroke of the other.

The turning tools were fashioned from small triangular files, the tangs of which had been bent and then ground. They cut in both directions.

I know, Ivory cuts differently than hard wood, but If I were to try this myself, I would probably go with scrapers that I made myself.

Unfortunately this chess set sat in Katrina's flood waters for a couple of weeks and emerged a uckey brown. Some to the balls cracked and a few were lost. The remnants now reside in a box some where in a closet somewhere in this house.
 
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