For a little project a set of wood balls were ordered from the jungle store.   A week later and they still hadn't been shipped.  Cancelled that order and set about seeing if I could make my own.   

Step 1.  Find a scrap of wood at least 1.5" x 1.5" x 10" or so.   Got close.  Had a scrap of hard maple salvaged from a retired computer desk project.  Larger in cross section than I needed so I trimmed it down to 1.5 x 1.5 with two passes through my table saw.  

Mounted it on my radial axis.  Screwed one end into a hex block I made many years back to hold it in the 3-jaw chuck.  Moulding toolpath created in Aspire. 

First finish pass left flat spots on the spheres.   Reset Z atop a flat spot and ran that finish pass again. 

Next step required 3/8" diameter holes on each ball. 

Made an X/Y/Z toolpath, using the vectors created for cutting the row of balls to verify spacing down the row. 

 

Next the balls were cut apart using my bandsaw. The nubs left needed to be removed.  

Sticking an aluminum rod into the holes made let me chuck them up one-at-a-time in the radial axis.

Used the hex nut between ball and tailstock point to help hold the ball secure. Made up a toolpath I hoped would just cut the nubs off.   Ran it once and found it cut a bit more of the sphere surface than I expected. 

Then realized I had a variable speed mini-lathe in my garage shop.  Clean it off, remounted the tailstock and tool rest.  Found a reasonably sharp skew chisel to use.

Trimmed off the nubs.  Sanded through 120, 180, 240, 320 to smooth the surface of each one.  20 minutes later I had 4 wood ball feet for my project. 

Less expensive than buying them.  Scrap was free.  My investment in the time require well worth it as a mental exercise to figure out steps needed to produce them.

4D

Edited March 15, 20251 yr by 4DThinker

19 hours ago, 4DThinker said:

a mental exercise to figure out steps needed to produce them.

 It's good to keep the wheels turning. 

 Nice work on the solution to the problem.

For the curious, my whimsy table.

Dowels have a screw head on both ends.  Table and ball feet have a magnet in the bottom of the holes the dowels snap into. No glue. Magnets hold all the parts together.  A minimalist design that just barely holds the table top horizontal 18" above the floor.  Bump the table a bit and it'll do a little wobble dance.  Most likely the best bonus feature of the design. 

4D

Very resourceful, creative and well done 4D.

Time to put a finish on the little table no one wants.  Had a little battle when spraying lacquer on the wood ball feet.  First three done with no complaints.  4th one, I believe, just wanted to be different.  It tried to roll off the table to escape, but I caught it.  That made it so angry that it turned red in the face.  OK.  It won.  Different it is.  I'll have to rename this project to the "Little Table with One Angry Shoe". 

   

4D

2 hours ago, 4DThinker said:

"Little Table with One Angry Shoe"

I like it. there's a statement here, not sure what it is yet, reminds me of a Garry Knox Bennett piece. 

4 hours ago, 4DThinker said:

Different it is.  I'll have to rename this project to the "Little Table with One Angry Shoe three happy feet.

Fix't it

Nice project. Cool table concept.

Since you're a retired curmudgeon now, I thought the balls were for the feet of your walker.  Just put felt pads on the bottom flat spot.  Good idea in principal.

2 minutes ago, honesttjohn said:

Since you're a retired curmudgeon now, I thought the balls were for the feet of your walker.  Just put felt pads on the bottom flat spot.  Good idea in principal.

I'll keep that idea in mind when a walker is needed. Might skip that stage though and just lasso myself to my Segway Mini. 

As for wood balls, I am contemplating other uses for them.   Already have a croquet set so that idea is out.

4D