Assorts Radius Ball Turning Tool for Lathe – 3/8" Shank HSS Tool Bit – Turns Concave & Convex Balls – Fits 7x14 & 7x16 Mini Lathes

spindle the handle is connected to isn't keyed, so slips. Thats the negative part. Can be fixed with a bit of machining, but something the manufacturer didnt care about, so you shouldn't care about supporting the manufacturer. FYI issues: 1. limited to diameter. Something I didnt consider when purchasing. Hopefully that helps you make a decision. 2. Handle on bit doesn't clear my QTP top ,so had to rotate the handle on the bit which could interfere with other things or introduce a safety issue.

The replacement for the first tool (received without a cutter bit) was complete. After I insured all screws were tight, I attached it to my lathe using a quick-change tool holder. First thing I tried was to simply turn a rounded end on a piece of Delrin plastic. It took a bit to get used to the process, but I turned a very nice half round onto the end of the plastic. I then chucked up a short length of 1/2" aluminum rod. I insured the rod end was far enough out of the chuck that the tool would not impact the chuck jaws in use. I undercut a length of the shaft from about 1/2" from the end of the rod back about an inch and turned that down to roughly 1/4 diameter. Then I set the tool horizontal to the work, touched off at the dead center of the rod. I moved the cross feed out far enough that the cutter was clear of the work. I then started the lathe and moved the bit in until it made contact with the right hand end of the work. I swung the handle left and right and knocked the edges off the work. I advanced the tool and swung the handle between the center of the end of the rod and back as far as it would go - that is, until it struck the undercut section of the rod. I continued advancing a little at a time until I was cutting the entire surface of the nicely-forming ball on the end of the shaft ! Once I had tool cutting during the entirety of the swing I stopped cutting and polished the ball and shaft with 400 grit sandpaper. The result a smooth, shiny ball about 3/8" diameter. I hadn't measured anything exactly in this test, just wanted to see if it worked. IT DOES!! Feed slowly and use enough speed to prevent chatter. I think this will work for all the small projects I may want balls for. I will try drilling and tapping the next one with 1/4-20 thread so I can screw it onto a "handle" - this is still test, try, learn mode. But think it will get lots of practical use in the future.

Took some trial and error and a few you tube videos to learn how to use it but it does work quite nicely. I seriously doubt your gonna be turning steel with it. But I lost the ball on the end of my back gear lever and turned a new one with it out of delrin and it works really well I tried it on some aluminum and it worked but was a little chattery and the finish was so so. I haven't tried steel and probably won't

Not rigid. Too much play to cut anything. Hopefully I can fix it. Not usable out of the box.

It was a waste of money. It's junk.

Not the best tool. A lot of play and needed a lot of tweaking before I could cut anything properly.

Just like the real thing, only much weaker and ineffective. Waste of money

The bit provided is a bit long. However, once it's shortened, it can form a ball on 1/2 inch round stock....

Er is geen streep voor de schaal verdeling, zelf een nulpunt moeten maken. Er is op de lager wat spelling.

Whomever made this piece of tooling must have skipped the bulk of their schooling. They laid out the tool in such a manner that the cutting bit does not align with the actual centre of the yoke resulting in a substantial misalignment of the cutter bit as it swings in the yoke. Completely useless since nearly 1/4” or 5mm of useful space has been lost which prevents the tool from being properly centred on the work. The work in the photos is only 23 and a bit mm in diameter. QUALITY CONTROL during manufacture and testing of these would have gone a long way since the tool would otherwise have rated 5 stars.

This part is made in India and is a very sloppy fit. Chattering is a huge problem even for a small radius, you end up filing the part to to have any kind of half decent finish. Cutting tool is too long and does not allow you to cut a full radius unless you flip the cutter upside down and cut from the back side of the part. Essentially this is a poorly designed copy with bad build quality.