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Turning non wood materials

S

Sebastian Montagano

Joined
Sep 8, 2021
Messages
10
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441
Location
Jenkintown, PA
I have seen online how people turn bowling balls. They are extremely cheap on eBay and other used places, but through my research I realized they can be dangerous. Some materials in vintage bowling balls can be extremely hard and sometimes toxic. I was wondering if anyone had experience in doing this, or could tell me a good bowling ball to turn that will be safe and not to hard.

Thank you very much,
Sebastian
 
Sebastian Montagano said:
I have seen online how people turn bowling balls. They are extremely cheap on eBay and other used places, but through my research I realized they can be dangerous. Some materials in vintage bowling balls can be extremely hard and sometimes toxic. I was wondering if anyone had experience in doing this, or could tell me a good bowling ball to turn that will be safe and not to hard.

Thank you very much,
Sebastian
Click to expand...
Sorry, although I've turned a lot of unusual materials, a bowling ball isn't one of them. But they are plastic, and plastic generally turns very nicely. Are bowling balls uniform all the way through? That's something I'd be concerned with.
I hope you come back with any progress on this.
 
Mark Jundanian said:
Interesting that the core is not spherical.
Click to expand...
Doesn't have to be, so long as it is balanced and weight controlled (they compensate for the average amount of material lost in drilling for finger holes). Many moons ago, I worked at a bowling alley that was tied to a pro shop where we did our own drilling. In those days, balls were made of hard rubber and composites, and an undrilled ball out of the box from the factory would not roll straight until we drilled them.
 
I've turned several different brands of solid surface countertop material. It turns and polishes up nicely though some will wear your tools down more quickly.
 
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