Wilton Vise Balls or Any Vise Balls

[Paul Jones]

JR,

I often wondered if a universal tool grinder would work for holding the ball bearing for grinding. There is a YouTube channel by Chuck Bommarito and I think these were for sale as "Screwyballs" on eBay. Looks like an interesting project with the right tooling in the shop. You could even chuck the 5C collet in the lathe and perhaps use a QCTP tool post grinder to grind off an edge? Great job!

Thanks, Paul

[jjr2001]

Hi Paul,
I just used a square 5c collet holder with the stop installed to keep the ball in the collet with about 40% of the ball exposed.
Just clamped that to an angle block and proceeded to grind. My grinder is not that powerful so I saved 70% of the time on the second one by using my belt sander first (ball chucked up in the 5C with stop) and just finished it on my "universal" grinder.
Much faster.

Cheers, John