Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Large Wood Sphere
mikeee12345
My next tool/mold order is an 18" diameter wood sphere.
I am considering making this item as a segmented piece to reduce the amount of wood chips.
I will also be making the item hollow to reduce the weight of the item.
These larger spheres I usually turn outboard and use a mating joint to marry the two halves together.
Re: Large Wood Sphere
John K Jordan
That will be fun! Don't forget the photos. :-)
Hey, did you see the one David Marks turned some years ago (2005)?
Redwood, started out a 400 lb chunk, finished weight about 40 lbs.
Here's a picture of Jim in David's shop with the sphere:
JKJ
Re: Large Wood Sphere
mikeee12345
David has some large balls, he also makes large spheres. :-)
I don't have the large lathe to use, but will assemble and turn in stages to keep things manageable.
As you increase items in size the challenges increase exponentially.
A sphere has so much surface area which creates the biggest challenge, more time sharpening tools,
and more time with the tools getting things turned to proper diameter and shape. Over shoot on your
shaping and cutting of the wood and you start over with that stack of segments. I should make a larger
tool to cut this size of sphere, but I am working outboard so it would be more complicated to fabricate a
tool that would work on the lathe turning a piece outboard. This is a one off piece so I will be doing this
by hand with conventional lathe turning tools. My shoulder and elbow is starting to hurt already. :-)
Is this image Photoshopped!!! The.....
JamieDonaldson
...size of the bandsaw on the R is gigantic!!! 
The bandsaw was mentioned in the 2005 thread
John K Jordan
When someone asked about it then, Jim replied:
"Minimax 36"... it is a beast. David is very happy with it. He has 4 bandsaws in his shop a 14" and 20" Delta and a Minimax 20" to go with the 36"."