ANYBODY ever drilled and tapped billard balls for shift knobs ? Any hints or tricks before i wreck um ?
grind or file a flat spot to start the bit in and set it in the center hole on the drillpress, or anything with the right sized hole to keep it stable
grind a flat surface . put in drill press and use a masonary bit large enough to epoxy a threaded insert in.
First choice is a Drill press,and a pair of Vice Grips. Wrap several layers of masking tape around the jaws of the Vice Grips so you don't mark the ball. I clamped a piece of wood to the table,and drilled a 1" diameter hole for the ball to sit in.Then,without moving the table,change bits and drill the hole in the ball. That way,you know it's centered.Hold the ball with the Vice Grips,so it doesn't try and spin.
i just laid a shop rag over the hole in the table of my drill press & used a centering bit to start a hole in the ball. hold the ball in your hand so it does not rotate & drill slowly so it does not grab & spin. after you get the pilot hole started, enlarge it as needed. no need to glue in an insert, just tap the hole to whatever thread you need. i have run them on many cars & bikes & never had one strip out yet.
You guys are making this way more complicated than it needs to be. There is no need to grind a flat spot. Use a drill press, line up with your bit, then when it's in the right spot, clamp the vice to the table. Billiard balls are soft enough that it just turns to dust as you're drilling, it won't bind up like drilling into metal. Keep it at 500 rpm or better. If you're using the drill press, you don't even need a pilot hole. If you're using a hand drill, you might want to take a punch and lightly tap a dimple for your drill bit. Have a steady hand if you're going the hand drill route As when using a tap in all applications, go 1/2 a turn, then reverse a 1/4 turn to break that thread. Don't just thread all the way into it. I've done any number of pool balls this way with 100% success rate
If you have access to a lathe do it in one. You cannot possibly drill it off centre in a lathe no matter how you orient it in the chuck...it will always be centred. Pete
Just did one for the 1st time a few weeks ago. I just drilled a pilot, then followed up with the same size as my threaded insert. Clear liquid nailed insert. And let it cure. I tried the lathe thing, my jaws were barely not big enough. But the lathe is definately the way to go if you have access to a decent sized one.
A lathe? How big is your lathe? With a three-jaw chuck? How do you keep the billiard ball from spinning in the jaws without marring the ball's surface? Have you actually done this???
Epoxying in a brass or steel threaded insert is the way to go. We didn't have a drill press or taps available in the right size so the ball was drilled with a 3/8" power drill. No flat spot required, just lay a piece of masking tape over the area to be drilled. That keeps the bit from wandering if you're careful. The ball was put in a several layers of red rag padded vise, drilled the next size up from the shift arm it went on . . . yeah, we put em on side shifts, but you had to hold it up in 2nd most times. (Next size up meaning if the shaft was 5/16", it was drilled 21/64" or 11/32" depending on what drill we had. It wasn't too critical.) The ball was retained by wrapping the shift arm threaded or grooved area with 2-3 layers of thin masking tape. Screw the ball on and you were in business. They stayed on quite well and all that was required was to twist the ball every now and then to make sure it didn't creep off. After a few weeks of solar driven thermal cycles, the masking tape got hard and the ball was pretty much a permanent fixture. Billiard ball, masking tape, flathead coupe = traditional....
Three wood shims would keep the ball from getting scratched. I keep three and four 1/16" aluminum shims handy - cut from flat strap 1" wide - to shim up stuff I don't want marked if it spins. Beer can shim stock works well too. I use it on finished surface aluminum workpieces to pad between chuck jaws and workpiece. Brass shimstock works, but there's so much beer can shim stock around here....
I do pool balls all the time in my lathe, Just drill and tap to size. fast and easy. I never use inserts. always tap. LATER
Put it on your Mother - in - laws head and shoot it with a high powered rifle . If you miss you still haven't wasted the bullet and you may actually have a hole in the pool ball.
And this is why i have always dug the HAMB .Less than 20 hours after posting this, i have a whole ton a help and tricks . Thanks alot all
On some old pool balls the numbered circles are not 180 degrees apart exactly. Make sure you are 180 from the center of your top number before you drill. Nothing dumber than a pool ball off-center.
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