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DRILLING METAL BALLS Aaaahh yes......the mystery of drilling balls that seems to have been kept secret for millions of years. I remember those painful memories in the beginning, when I was trying trying to learn all this Animation Armature stuff.....I was told that I had to use the super hardened (not drillable) chrome steel ball bearings, then using the primitive & not consistently accurate technique; with a blowtorch, heat the ball bearings to a cherry orange color and then let the balls slowly cool in sand. This was supposedly, to anneal (soften) the balls so that you can then drill the still #@%^&[!# hard balls. In my wisdom now, I have discovered that the only way to accurately soften the hard ball bearings is, to have professional metal heat treating shops do the job....they heat the balls in precision super high heat ovens & under controlled vacuum (no oxide formation). Another area where I was mislead, was; that you had to use a lathe turning machine to drill the balls. You had to mount EACH ball in the the 3 jaw lathe chuck, then you needed to face off a flat area on the ball, THEN mount a center drill (to mark center), THEN remove that tool, replace with a drill bit (for hole drilling), THEN, go through all sorts of machine set-up gymnastics to set the ball hole depth.....all this for just ONE BALL....painfully tedious and time consuming! Well, I have acquired many grey hairs in learning some of my easier methods and before I leave this earth, I am not going to let my fellow man go through the same suffering experiences. Just observe the following, and you will be most enlightened. The secret is: to use a certain kind of ball that can be, somewhat easily drilled, and, fabricating some simple plates that will rigidly hold the balls while you drill the holes. The plates can be fabricated similar to the "open hole" socket method, but, you do not need to include the center screw. |
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