Since my last project, I had circles on my mind and I’ve been intrigued with making round things without a lathe. Soon, I began researching how to make a wooden ball. I found many methods and tried a few. Some resulted in disaster, but I pulled it off. Challenge complete – an oak sphere!
The internet provided many suggestions and I tried a few of them. One of the funniest methods instructs you to build a rectangular box and place a random orbital sander face up on the bottom. Then, a cube of wood is dropped into the box where it is violently shaped by bouncing against the sand paper inside the box. Of course, I thought I could improve upon this method by using the stationary belt sander.
Horsepower equals success… or so I thought!
I created an enclosure and mounted it in front of the sanding belt on my stationary belt sander. Next, I simply turned on the machine, dropped a cube of wood inside the enclosure and closed the door. After a few minutes, I felt someone staring at me. My friend Jason arrived to mow the lawn and stood at the open door garage door, looking perplexed. He questioned the loud, awful noise emanating from the garage. I explained what I was doing but he shook his head in disbelief. After talking with my friend for a few minutes, something inside the woodshop didn’t sound right.
Worried, I powered down the belt sander to check on the block of wood. The inside of the enclosure was quite hot and the belt was really getting beat-up. The cube, partially turned into a sphere, cracked in two!
I decided to try again. This time to ease the abuse on the sanding belt, I removed the corners of the cube with the bandsaw. After several minutes, without surprise, the sanding belt failed. The belt was replaced and the process resumed. A good twenty minutes later, boom, thwack, thwack, thwack, hiss, the new belt blew up!
Two sanding belts later, this method was getting pricey. I recalled the random orbital sander method I saw on YouTube. I was too impatient to build the enclosure and the one I built wouldn’t adapt to the sander. Ignorantly, my disrespect for a mere sander flirted with danger. Holding the sander upside down, I turned it on and caged the semi-sphere over the sand paper with my fingers. Things were going fine for a few seconds. Whoosh, crack, the sphere escaped the flesh cage and ricocheted off the wall, never to be found again! I’m lucky the direction wasn’t toward my wife’s car or my face!
Never underestimate a power tool – even a lowly sander!
The successful and safe method used a clamped fixture to rotate the work piece against the disc sander. I trimmed the corners off the cube such as before and began transforming the wood into a sphere on the bandsaw. Next, I placed the semi-sphere in the fixture and randomly rotated it against the disc sander. The sphere formed as I edged the fixture and work piece closer and closer to the sander. Final shaping was performed by placing the sphere inside a prototype bracelet from a previous project and rolling it around the workbench with the palm sander on top. Moving though the grits, the surface became smoother and smoother. The wood was finished with danish oil and pigment. Spray lacquer was applied as a top coat for sheen and protection. Light sanding between coats of lacquer built up a smooth finish.
This was a fun project, full of exploration into new methods. The result is a sphere that is nearly perfect! The dangers and wear on my tools, however, could have been avoided with additional thought. Noted for future reference!
sounds like a good adventure. I am very happy your face is still intact.