turning a sphere by hand
Keith Tompkins
One way to turn a sphere without a jig. Lay out a square block, find the centers, and draw a circle on two sides. Bandsaw the first circle, staying just outside the line, and don't cut all the way through. Then, cut the second circle, again, don't cut all the way through. Carefully remove the excess, the result should look like the bottom image. Then, draw a heavy pencil line on two sides, as shown, mount on the lathe, and turn until the pencil line is very thin. Revove the tenons with cup centers. To sand, mount a piece of scrap board on the lathe, and remove the center to match the diameter of the sphere. You now have a board with a big hole in it. Cut the result in half, and glue sandpaper to one half to use as a near perfectly round sanding guide.
