Bowling Ball Vise

[tippit]

Doing silver in lay on a small curved knife handle can be exasperating trying to keep everything stable and in alinement...

Solution...Bowling Ball Rotating Vise sitting in a small garden tractor tire!  The weight of the bowling ball is enough to hold your work steady and moves into any position you need by just rotating the bowling ball.  Might be something you could easily adapt to hold your powder horn for scrimshaw...tippit

[oldtravler61]

  Tippet thanks for showing. I built one of these after seeing a YouTube video on it.
  Far as I'm concerned it works great...just don't drop it in your foot....

[webradbury]

What do you use to cut the ball? The online vid showed the guy struggling with a sawzall. Is there an easier way I wonder?

[oldtravler61]

 Webradbury, I cut mine partially with my 14 inch bandsaw. Held the ball with a modified vise on my saws table.
Drew a line around it. Then started to cut. When I got almost threw rotating it. I finished with the sawzall. Then filed the surface smooth. Then attached the vise.
  Hope this helped you....Oldtravler

[tippit]

I used my band saw but be careful and take your time.  These things work great...tippit

oldtravler61,
If you drop mine...hard to pick up as I cut the finger holes out for the flat part

[WadePatton]

As a fellow who has owned a lot of 15# drilled-to-fit balls, I might add that most all modern, high-performance bowling balls have offset cores of various materials embedded inside.  Some of those cores might be hard on sawing blades. They are there to enhance the performance of the ball in transition from slide to roll, along with the positioning of the fingerholes and the cover material/finish...but that's a different subject.

So, I'd keep my cuts minimal in depth or cut away into the fingerhole side.  Or just do some "exploratory drilling" to reduce surprises. The junker house balls are likely homogeneous.  I've yet to cut one but may soon. This has long been an engravers trick for larger stuff. Use self-centering vise for best results.

[tippit]

Wade,
My ball was as cheap as I could find so I guess no fancy stuff in the middle.  My cut was also through the finger hole area.  Stupidy & luck were on my side!

[dogcatcher]

I found a bowling ball at the Salvation Army resale store, it had a chunk broken out of one of the finger holes.  It was marked $5, I asked about a discount since it was broken, the lady said it was free.  I like to support the Salvation Army, they do a great job with our local homeless.  So I gave her a $10. 

To cut it in 2 parts, I turned a peg to fit a finger hole on my lathe and left the square end of the blank.  I then jammed it home with some epoxy and mounted the square end in a vise.   Then I used an old handsaw to slice off about 1/3 of it.   For my vise on the top I drilled and tapped a hole to fit my wood lathe chucks.  I took a piece of 1-8TPI all thread and epoxied it in the hole.  When i use it I screw on one of my chucks. 

If was younger, I would make one of these.  But since I am crippled up and don't get much shop time anymore, I don't need it.  I may not need it, but I sure do want one.  I found this looking on the internet, and have saved the picture for over a year. 


 

[oldtravler61]

  Wade good point. Mine is just one of the 8 lb kid's bowling ball. Had it for 40 year's or so...
  Tippet I should have thought of that. Cut my holes off mine too...!

[trentOH]

After a career of smashing hard maple, the ball is now atoning for it's ways, and helping to put maple to it's ultimate good purpose!

[P.W.Berkuta]

I found a bowling ball at the Salvation Army resale store, it had a chunk broken out of one of the finger holes.  It was marked $5, I asked about a discount since it was broken, the lady said it was free.  I like to support the Salvation Army, they do a great job with our local homeless.  So I gave her a $10. 

To cut it in 2 parts, I turned a peg to fit a finger hole on my lathe and left the square end of the blank.  I then jammed it home with some epoxy and mounted the square end in a vise.   Then I used an old handsaw to slice off about 1/3 of it.   For my vise on the top I drilled and tapped a hole to fit my wood lathe chucks.  I took a piece of 1-8TPI all thread and epoxied it in the hole.  When i use it I screw on one of my chucks. 

If was younger, I would make one of these.  But since I am crippled up and don't get much shop time anymore, I don't need it.  I may not need it, but I sure do want one.  I found this looking on the internet, and have saved the picture for over a year. 

Now THAT is the hot set-up -- I like it very much but don't have the extra room for it.

[Tink Garvey]

Good idea!! Since I broke my wrist I can not bowl any more so my Hammer is going to get hammered on.