Bowling ball on the lathe

Just following up on my previous post about putting a bowling ball on the lathe. As I said I cut it in two with my chainsaw. I thought I would try to turn a bowl from it. I put it flat side down on the drill press and drilled a 2 1/2" tenon in it with a forstner bit. I mounted it on the lathe supported by the tailstock. I tried a carbide gouge on it. The white inside turned easily, but the black outside 1/2" was very brittle and came off in flying chunks. The ball now resides in the waste bin. Maybe a different ball would work better, but I have given up for now. Back to some inside-out candleholders

try using the ewt tools on the outside
if memory serves it is a polyester resin or polyurethane cover

Thanks for the interesting threads!

If you present your gouge at a more shearing angle, that may work. That would require digging your ball out of the trash though.

In the event that you want to turn a bowling pin, they are made (quite well IMO) using segmented hardwood, probably maple. Be careful. The ones we had contained voids on the inside. VERY hazardous to attempt a plunge with your parting tool. DAMHIKT

I believe that most common or alley balls are poly and the amount of usage they get make them get hard and brittle over the year's. If I was going to try this I would look at garage sales for a urethane ball their softer. Usually these balls are semi clear on the outside but remember what Scott H. said the middle can be a different material,the middle can even be a liquid in a small ball that can be off centered.

I hope someone can post a success on this. I've been wanting to turn one myself. I think some of the really, really old ones can be a hard rubber material on the outside too.

The more expensive balls often have a Lignum vitae center in them.

At this site, the following is offered:

"Hard rubber balls dominated the market until the 1970s, when polyester balls were developed. In the 1980s, urethane bowling balls were introduced. Around 1990, dramatic changes were made in the design of the ball cores (dense blocks within the ball that modify the ball's balance). Shortly thereafter, reactive urethane was introduced as a new coverstock (the ball's surface layer) option."

And this -

"Manufacturers currently use three types of plastics as coverstock material. Polyester, the least expensive, produces the smallest amount of hook on the back third of the lane because it is relatively unaffected by varying amounts of oil on the lane surface. In the middle of the price range, urethane balls offer more hooking action than polyester balls but are more durable and require less maintenance than reactive urethane balls. At the top of the price scale, reactive urethane (resin) balls provide the greatest hooking ability and deliver more power to the pins on impact. Various ball manufacturers have formed alliances with chemical suppliers to formulate proprietary materials by blending various resins with urethane."

It would make 2 very nice dog bowls yeah.