springett turning tools.

[jared herbert]

Has any one reading this ever used one of these tools developed by David Springett for turning balls inside of balls? I have been making some balls this winter based on the process described in a Woodturning Design article. They fascinate me and people that I give the balls to are impressed with them. So anyway it is getting to be a long winter and I am going through all of my books and looking for more odd ball ways to fritter away my time. I was looking though my old copy of Woodturning Wizardry and thought to my self that would be something really interesting and challenging to make. Just wonderng if anyone has any experience with this stuff or if there is any alternative to spending the $150 or so that the tools cost. I am also hopefully attaching some pictures of the balls that I have turned out this winter. Some walnut, maple, white pine and red cedar. Some are made from solid pieces of wood, some are made from glued up blanks. Thanks Jared023.jpg030.jpg

[Jim Sebring]

Fred Holder is one of the gurus on making Chinese balls. He publishes "More Woodturning" magazine. www.morewoodturning.net .

[Curt Fuller]

Jared, I got a set of Springetts tools and the book about a year ago as a gift. I got as far as building a jig for turning the ball but never made it as far as the hollowing and turning a ball within a ball. I just sold the tools recently because it was just too overwhelming to me. I enjoy turning for the freedom of not having to be so precise and the chinese balls require such precision that I felt it was too far over my head. I love the look of Springett's work and from the looks of the balls you've turned you seem to be well on your way with it. As I remember there were instructions for making some of the tools in the Woodturning Wizardry book, but that again is an exercise in precision. Check ebay for the tools and book and you might be able to find a bargain. And good luck with your adventure.

[Michelle Rich]

a person on the Lumberjocks forum posted some of the "balss within balls" tyope stuff this morning. go over there & ask him about this..

[Brian Weaver]

Hi Jared, If you want to try something a little different and not lay out a bunch of money you could give these a try. I call them "The Poor man's Chinese Ball". The inside ball is by no means perfectly round but it still gives a wow factor. I usually leave just a bit of material so that the inner ball appears to be floating. These are about 4" in diameter but could be made just about any size depending on the size of your doughnut chuck and tool.

The tool that I used on these is just an Allen wrench that I put a bend in and ground. The doughnut chuck is a piece of 1 1/8" plywood for the back plate (kinda over kill but its what I had) and 3/8" MDF for the front plate. The back plate is held in my 4 jaw chuck with a "tenon" that is actually part of a pickup head (my term) out of a VCR. They are the perfect size to hold in a chuck and they don't crush so you can use them over and over.

The important part is your layout I accomplish this using the index feature on my lathe and the pencil jig pictured below that is set so the tip of the pencil is centered perfectly on the points of your drives. Then holding the base flat on the ways you can move it around the ball marking your lines.

Another important part is making sure your ball is as perfectly round as you can get it. I use a simple ball jig that I made for this. I know I glossed over some of this but hopefully it will help you out. I just gave a demo on these a couple of weeks ago and video taped it but I haven't looked at the video yet to see if its worth sharing .

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[Ryan Baker]

I've done some of this sort of work. I have a set of Springett tools, but I haven't gotten around to doing a Chinese ball yet. I have some other ones like the spiked star in a sphere. Be aware that you can't do all of the designs in the Springett book with the tools in the set anyway. For example, the spiked star sphere, though the same size as the chinese ball design, needs a longer cutter than the one in the set. There are other tools you will need as well to reach all the required areas. You really need to be able to create these tools as necessary -- which can be crafted out of O1 tool steel stock, then hardened and tempered. It is very time consuming. It's just that you will still have to make tools, even if you spend the money on the Springett tool set, so you might just want to make them all from scratch.

As Brian mentioned, there are other designs that can be done with less toolmaking on your part. You might want to start with those designs if you don't want to get into making cutters.

[jared herbert]

Thanks Brian, this is just the sort of information I wanted to see. It looks like a good, simple solution to a process that could lead to obsession and get out of control. I would really like to see the video that you mentioned. Any information would be a step ahead of where I am now. Thanks Jared