Another ball fabrication procedure

[kappullen]

Here's another way to make small balls from brass.



This ball is 7/16 inch diameter.



Grind the teeth off an old file  keeping the file flat and cool.


Drill through the file with a carbide drill, or end mill to the finished ball size. Keep the file cool.

Slot for the shank with a cutoff wheel, or carbide mill.

Grind the cutting face maintaining flatness to touch up the edges.


This tool can also be made from tool steel in the soft, then hardened and tempered in the cutting area.

If done in the soft, one of those hand taper reamers will give you a bit of clearance under the cutting edge.

A Dramel tool can also be used to make a little clearance under the edge of a file.


Now, place a rest as shown in the lathe tool post, or like a wood lathe rest, for the file.

A drill press may also work?


It's easiest to do if you rough out the shank area with a parting tool, and cut the od close to size.


Gently, with the lathe turning slowly, feed the file over your blank.


The sharp corners of the file will  shave the blank down to a sphere.

The file will drop over the ball and hang there.




Remember files are brittle, and will shatter if forced.

Use eye protection, preferably a face shield to cover the neck area too.




Use a bit of cutting oil to cool things off.


Now, saw the ball off and dress the stem to blend with the od.


I do not recommend this procedure,  but post it is an old time way of doing things.


Safety wise, it would be a good idea to draw (temper) the unused area of the

file to a straw color making it more flexable.

Kap

[gulfcoastblackpowder]

Seems like making a mould would be a much easier/safer way to make rounds, especially in any large quantity, but it certainly would be one option.

BTW, please check your pms.

[cannonmn]

Here's another way:

Take a cube of the material the ball is to be made of, let's say lead in this case.  The edge of the cube should be 1.1784 times the diameter of the ball desired.  Using tongs or large tweezers as appropriate to hold the ball on a steel plate (anvil) with a corner of the cube straight up, strike the corner with a ball peen hammer of appropriate weight.  Reposition the cube to expose the next corner and repeat, etc. until all the corners are no longer corners but nubs.  Now using two steel plates approximately one foot square and at least 1/8 inch thick, hold the top plate at opposite sides with hands.  If the ball is too small to allow fingers to fit under the top plate, weld handles on top of the top plate.  Allow the handles to cool before grabbing them.  With ball roughly centered between the plates, oscillate the top plate in a circular motion so that the lead nubs are gradually pressed down.  In approximately 12 minutes, depending on the hardness of the lead used, the ball should be approximately round.  Check the diameter.  If the diameter isn't what you wanted, start over after adjusting the cube edge measurement using a least-squares polynomial retrogression, because I just made up that 1.1784 thing, I thought it sounded kinda cool.

Or just make a mold.