How to turn a true wooden ball is apt to puzzle the amateur; but this, like most other mechanical methods, is very "simple after you know how." True, all balls for which there is sufficient demand are now turned by automatic machinery, much more cheaply than they could be turned by hand; but the job is a pleasing one, and well worth doing for its own sake.

If one has a lathe with a face plate, no other equipment, except the usual chisels, is necessary.

The block is first placed between the usual centers, turned as nearly spherical as may be, and the ends sawed off. A piece of hard wood of sufficient size is next screwed onto the face plate and turned into a cup-shaped chuck, as shown, together with the roughly-turned blank in Fig. 125. The Wank is next pressed into this chuck, as shown in Fig. 126. If the chuck is turned out to such a size that the blank will go in just a little less than half way, it will stay without trouble. Then, using a common chisel and making a scraping cut, the blank is worked down to the marks of the first cut, to which this one is at right angles. In order that one may see better how the work is progressing, without stopping the lathe, it is well to mark the blank heavily around the middle with a soft lead pencil. Fig. 127 shows this cut nearly complete.

Fie. 125 - The roughly turned ball.

Fig. 126 - Ready for finishing cut.

The blank is next reversed, and the same cut made on the other side. If special accuracy is required, it may be well to repeat the operation several times; and it is always advisable to start with the chuck block thick enough, so that it may be cut hack and the hole trued up for each succeeding operation. In sandpapering, it the hole is of just the right size, one can change the position of the ball without stopping the lathe.

Fig. 127 - Finishing cut partly completed.

Fig. 128 - The finished ball.